The Road Less Taken
by DanielNieves
Summary: On the night of the Kyuubi's attack, Sarutobi finds a way to save Minato Namikaze from sacrificing himself. Naruto Namikaze becomes the hero of Konoha, can he live up to their expectations and become the Godaime, and survive the trials to get there.
1. Chapter 1

Naruto: The Road Less Taken

Chapter One: Minato Namikaze

The Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze frantically searched through a large pile of scrolls and books, eyebrows furrowed in frustrating. The Yondaime also known as the Yellow Flash was concerned for the safety of Konoha, because the Hidden Leaf village would be attacked in any minute. For some reason as the fates would have Kyuubi no Kitsune, the Nine-Tailed Fox demon was about to attack and destroy the village. Minato had been searching for a way to defeat it, and the only option was suicidal, literally.

The only way he knew how to defeat him would cost him his very life, it involved a series of seals that would invoke Shinami, the death god and rip Kyuubi's essence out of his corporeal body. Then he'd have to seal it into the body of a newborn child. As fates would also have it, today his son was born. The reason it needed to be a newborn child was because a child of a couple months old, days old even would reject the seal as well as the Kyuubi's chakra and unleash the Kyuubi into Konoha again. But with a Four Symbols seal and an Eight Tetragram Sealing style, his son's chakra and Kyuubi's would mix properly.

There was no other choice, it had to be his newborn son Naruto Uzamaki-Namikaze. He pulled a cigarette out of the box he had in one of his hidden drawers. This could be his very last one. Sending a flare of flames to his hand using chakra, he lit his cigarette, pulling deep from it. He was only twenty two, to young to die, and too young to be Hokage really, but the Sandaime had fallen sickly in his old age and elected Minato be to the Yondaime rather than that creepy Orochimaru. Sometimes he didn't know if he should hate or thank Sarutobi.

Standing up he put on his white jacket with flames running across the back and headed out to find the Sandaime to say his goodbyes. He did not want to see his son until necessary, or else he would go through with this plan at.

As he sprinted towards Sarutobi's house, a medic-nin called out his name. "Hokage-sama." The pale faced nin said.

"Yes Haruno." Minato replied, swiveling his eyes towards the frightened Haruno.

"It's about your wife Hokage-sama. Due to complications during the childbirth, she didn't make it."

Minato blinked his eyes in confusion. His eyes began watering up fast. "What did you say?" Minato growled out, the medic-nin frozen in place by the mass amount of killer intent the young Hokage was putting out.

"I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but I thought you'd want to know sir." Haruno replied shakily. He knew that the Yondaime was called the Yellow Flash for no reason; his Flying Thunder God technique was throughout the world. It was the reason the Hidden Leaf village hadn't been attack since Minato became the Yondaime.

"Take me to her Haruno-san. Please." As Haruno lifted his head up to see the Hokage eye to eye, he saw Minato's face streaked with tears of concern.

"Yes, sir. Follow me." The two began sprinting towards the hospital. Tears blurred Minato's vision, as he tore through the streets of Konoha to the Hidden Leaf's Hospital. He rushed past a few genin and headed straight to the receptionist's counter.

"What room is Kushina Uzamaki in?" Minato demanded, startling a few of the nurses manning the desk.

"Sir you cannot go in there right now?" A kunoichi said, standing in his way, in a feeble attempt to prevent him from going further.

"I am her husband and the goddamned Hokage of this village. I will see my wife, using whatever means of violence I see fit. Take that as a hint to get the fuck out of my way." Minato replied, holding out his right hand out, he was about to do something drastic in his fury.

Without notice, there was a blue ball of spinning chakra in his hand. Seeing this Mikubi Haruno began sprinting towards the ANBU security. Suddenly some one gripped his right hand, canceling the attack. "Sensei, please do not do something so drastic." To Minato's right was his student Hatake Kakashi, his right eye pleading Minato to calm down.

"Kushina-chan's dead." Minato said, looking at his student sadly, his eyes blurred with tears he'd been trying to hold in.

Hatake Kakashi, a prodigy, son of the White Fang bowed his head down for a second before looking at his sensei with an apologetic look. "I'm sorry sensei." He put his left hand on Minato's shoulder to offer comfort. The fourteen year old jounin stared at his sensei, at his friend. "I'm here if you need me."

Minato nodded his thanks. "Hatake… I'm not making it out of this alive. But I'm taking Kyuubi with me, please Hatake, take care of my son as if he were your own." Minato pleaded, tears streaming.

He was a broken man, a broken Hokage.

They say shinobi are just tools that they don't feel.

He felt.

Pain.

It was tearing him up inside to know that Kushina was dead, she had always been so hyperactive and lively, and now that was gone. She just a corpse, no longer the lively woman that was his wife.

Nothing else.

"You're going to come out alive, sensei." Kakashi said. He didn't wanna lose the Yondaime as well.

A couple of years ago his father had committed suicide, and he had never known his mother. Then he lost Obito and Rin, all he had left was his sensei, the Yondaime.

"Let me take your place sensei. I'll copy all the seals with the Sharingan and do it for you, but you can't die and leave me alone." Hatake pushed the Yondaime against the wall. "Not again."

"It has to be this way. You can't escape destiny."

"Minato, shame on you." A deeper voice called out. It was Sarutobi, the Sandaime. "You never believed all that destiny crap and now because Kushina's gone you're going to leave Naruto to suffer a life without both parents. Its bad enough you want to seal the Kyuubi away in him, but leave him parentless. Have you lost all your humanity since becoming Hokage? I expected better from you." Sarutobi reprimanded him.

"Tell me then. Tell me how to stop the Kyuubi. He's already in Fire Country and headed here. Not to mention the fact that Cloud Nin will probably attack right after the Kyuubi in an attempt to destroy Konoha." Minato said bitterly, cursing himself on the inside for being Hokage.

"Minato-kun. I have always looked at you as if you were a second son, so I am prepared to help you defeat Kyuubi, no matter what it takes.

"You know what it was like when your father Akina Namikaze died! Why would you condemn your son to the same fate? If you sacrifice yourself and seal the Kyuubi into Naruto, who would protect him in your death? He would be the scapegoat of their hate for the Kyuubi no Kitsune. If you live you can stop that. We need you alive Minato, that and your Flying Thunder God technique is legendary. I'm an old bat now; I'm forty eight years old, much too old to defend the village from Cloud Nin and such." Sarutobi said, pulling out his pipe and lighting it up, puffing some smoke into the air.

"What do you suggest then, Sandaime?" Minato asked, brows furrowed in concentration.

"There is a kinjutsu I've created. It's very similar to the shadow clone jutsu. This kinjutsu that a call the Blood Clone Jutsu would form a clone of me, a life within itself, with a soul and all. Right now I have about forty years to live, give or take a couple. Using this Blood Clone technique will leave me with about twenty. It drains you of half the life that you got left for an actual living clone of yourself. This clone, I'll use to seal the Kyuubi away into Naruto and sacrifice it, effectively taking your place." the Sandaime explained.

"I can't let you do that Sarutobi."

"Nonsense Minato-kun. You are still young. Both Asuma and Kokuzu will have their father for a couple more years and when I do die, they will be grown men. I will do this. You will not shirk your duties as Hokage and as a father when this is the most sensible solution." Sarutobi growled out at him, effectively closing the conversation.

Minato bowed his head and Sarutobi hugged him. "I'm sorry to hear about Kushina for what it's worth." Rather than fight against the old man's embrace, Minato gave in, crying bitter tears against the old man's chest.

"I can't believe she's gone, Kushina's dead." Minato sobbed.

"Let's get ready for that demon Kyuubi then." Sarutobi spoke moments later.

"Hai." Straightening himself out, the Yondaime stood tall with a determined look in his eyes, white leather jacket billowing around.

I will not fail you Naruto…

I will not fail you…

The blood clone jutsu was a success and Sarutobi's clone managed to seal Kyuubi into Naruto. Minato leading a small army of Leaf jounin and chuunin destroyed the Cloud nin and Minato beheaded their Kage, setting it upon a spear on the borders of the Leaf Village to warn and outsiders threatening to attack. Three years later the council pushed Minato into marrying Yukani Uchiha, sister to Fugaku Uchiha to interbreed the dying the Namikaze clan with the prestigious Uchihas.

One year later she gave birth to a baby boy named Kakashi Namikaze, named after the Yondaime's favorite pupil and godfather to the child, Kakashi Hatake. Five years after that ANBU Captain Itachi Uchiha murdered his best friend Shishui as well as his father Fugaku, fleeing from the village as the Yondaime arrived in time to rescue the remaining Uchihas.

It is rumored that Itachi killed his father using the Mangekyo Sharingan.

Shortly after that the Yondaime started a law forcing the ninja academy not to accept pupils until they were thirteen, in an attempt to stall young children from obtaining power at such a young age. Another seven years pass with relative ease, just a few political squabbles with Iwa, but bloodshed had not been seen in quite some time for Konoha. They were allies with Sunagakura and Kirigakure and the other countries remained neutral with them. Fearing the Yellow Flash, they did not attack.

Somewhere, deep in a cave, a pale-faced nin with slitted yellow eyes conversed with his two apprentices.

"Soon we shall kill the Yondaime, and destroy Konoha forever." He said, cackling with laughter.

AN: First of all, this is my first Naruto story, and many might complain that the first chapter's a bit rush. Seriously, I don't wanna write 10000 words of some Naruto rehash of the first episode. This is just a prologue introducing you to the beginning of the story. Please review, I'm a lazy writer and reviews would fuel me to update faster. I don't know the pairings yet, haven't thought about it, but absolutely no yaoi, so don't expect so SasuNaru.


	2. A night with the Yondaime

Naruto: The Road Less Taken

Chapter 2: A Night With The Yondaime

By: Daniel Nieves

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, period. I wish I did, but I don't.

A/N: You know I almost gave up on this fic, I figured since I only got one review on it, it must not have been good enough. So here's the second chapter, if I only get one review again, then I'll know people don't like this fic and will delete it off And don't get me wrong, it's not meant as a threat, but if no one reviews and let's me know what the think of it, why keep writing?

_16 Years after the Kyuubi's defeat_

It was unnaturally rainy. There was a huge downpour in Konoha forcing the two brothers back inside as lightning threatened to strike at any second. Sixteen year old Namikaze Naruto ruffled his little brother's hair playfully, earning him a glare from the boy. Though they were brothers, they did not look alike whatsoever.

Naruto took after his father, the Yondaime. He had blond, spiky hair with cerulean eyes, and six whisker marks on his face. At sixteen, he was tall and lanky, nearly as tall as his father at six feet. Namikaze Kakashi on the other hand did not look like his father whatsoever, except for the eyes. Kakashi had light blue eyes and jet black hair pulled up in a pineapple haired fashion, mimicking his older brother's friend Nara Shikamaru.

The two even dressed different. Naruto being the more upbeat and outgoing of the two wore a black and orange outfit with the Hidden Leaf symbol embedded in orange colored diamonds in the back. Kakashi was completely different in an all black assemble matching his somewhat broody personality. He had on black gi pants with black boots that reached the top of his shins. To cover his chest he had on a black beater with a black leather jacket with a Uchiha symbol on his back.

"Wanna spar Naruto?" Kakashi begged his older brother, jumping on top of him and wrapping his arms around him in a head lock.

Shoving his brother off of him, he replied, "We can't, dad and Yukani will bitch about it like usual. It's undignified for the sons of the Hokage to be wrestling. They're both some serious snobs, god I hate them both."

"They're not that bad, Naruto-niisan." Kakashi replied, wrapping his arm around his brother.

"Dad's a dick, and mom's a bitch." Naruto growled out under his breath.

"I heard that Naruto." the Yondaime replied walking into the room. His hair was rain soaked, as well as his jounin flak vest.

"It's the truth Hokage-_sama._" Naruto responded harshly, standing up to leave the room.

Minato winced at the tone his son took with him. He sighed in frustration.

This was going to be troublesome.

Placing his hand on his son's shoulder, Minato stopped him. "Son, let's go for a walk."

"What would you like to talk about Hokage-_sama_?" Naruto answered evenly, swiveling his eyes to his father.

"Enough with the honorifics Naruto, I'm your father and this is not a public hearing. In private you can call me father, you know?"

Naruto was quiet for a second. "Let's go for that walk then." he replied, giving his little brother a wave before exiting the room, his father following.

The two walked in silence for a few minutes, Naruto walking to his most visited place in Konoha, the Konoha Memorial. The Memorial was there to honor the Leaf-Nin that had died in battle. Uzumaki Kushina's name was there, his real mother.

He never seen any pictures of her, all her pictures of her were 'mysteriously' destroyed in the Kyuubi's attack sixteen years ago.

Eyes watering at the turmoil of thoughts that were running through his head, he turned to his father. "So what do you want to talk about Yondaime?"

Hearing the hateful tone in his voice, Minato snapped and grabbed Naruto by the collar of his orange and black shirt. Lifting him up, he pressed him against a tree, cerulean eyes burning bright with anger, lips pulled back in a snarl. "Why do you insist to hate me for fuck's sake. I'm your father!" Minato yelled at him, shaking with anger.

"My father died sixteen years ago with my mother. You are not my father Yondaime, you are just another Hokage to me." Naruto snapped pushing his father away in a burst of strength. "You are a Hokage twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Tell me, just when the fuck were you my father? Was it sixteen years ago when mom died and you were willing to die with her by sealing the Kyuubi into me?"

Minato was at a loss of words for a second. Instinctively his fist was drawn back and smashed into Naruto's face, sending him stumbling backwards for a second.

"How dare you!?"

"How dare you consider yourself to be my father?" Naruto growled out him. "Where were you when I started at the academy? You always loved Kakashi more than me, you spent whatever time you had left with him, training him to be you next Hokage or whatever, you were never there for me. The only place you had in my life was as a Hokage, and so shall it remain." Naruto spat out bitterly.

"You have no idea what I go through as Hokage. You want to know the truth Naruto, yes I considered sealing the Kyuubi into you and dying afterwards, I was dying inside. Your mother just died right after you were born, I wasn't in the right state of mind. Then Sarutobi used the kinjutsu to seal Kyuubi away in you, you know that and for the next three years I didn't know how to be a father. Kushina was gone and I had no one. Then you grew up and while you look like me, we're nothing alike, you're just like her."

"I'm glad, otherwise I'd know I'd be a dick when I grow up." Naruto replied.

"You're so disrespectful, do you remember the time when you used graffiti to spray the word 'DICK" on my statue on the monument? You say I never was a father, I'd say you never were a son!"

"Go fuck yourself." Naruto began striding away from his father.

"We're not done." Minato snapped, grabbing Naruto by the arm, but not fast enough to see the punch that landed to his stomach, knocking the air out of him, suprising Minato.

"Yes we are!"

"Must we come to blows before we can talk?" Minato snarled, slamming his knee in Naruto's stomach. Grabbing his son by the collar again, he brought him to his chest, wrapping his arms around him.

"Get off me you fucking bastard!" Naruto sobbed, trying to fend off his father. Minato clung to the boy, he after all was the only remainder that Kushina ever existed.

"No." Minato replied, tightening the hold on his son, until finally Naruto gave up and just cried on his father for a few moments. After letting go, Minato wiped his eyes.

"Are you hungry son?" Minato asked, wrapping his arm around his boy.

"Yes, a little."

"Let's get some ramen." Minato suggested.

A look of disbelief crossed Naruto's face for a second. "I thought you hated the stuff?"

"You crazy, I love ramen. Yukani says it bad for me though and unfitting of a Hokage. God, what a bitch." Minato admitted, a grin crossing his face for a second as well as Naruto's.

Naruto eyed his father wearily.

_We're not so different after all… Naruto thought._

"I could use something to drink after some ramen though. How about it Yond… father?" Naruto asked, eyes closed, as if waiting for the rejection from his father.

"Some sake sounds good." Minato smiled, wrapping his arm around his son's shoulder. Both blonds happy, they headed off to Ichiraku's ramen stand to grab a few bowls to eat.

_Namikaze Mansion_

Namikaze Uchiha Kakashi pushed his body to the limits. He only had a year left before he headed to the academy and trained under Umino Iruka. He would be better than his brother and his father. There would be no doubt about that.

After doing two hundred pushups, he stopped his strenuous workout and deactivated his gravity seals.

Blood red eyes with two black tomoes spinning, he stood up and brushed his sweat soaked hair back.

Ever since he had unlocked his Sharingan, he practiced keeping it activated as long as he could, whenever his father and brother were out, he didn't want them to find out yet. One day they would, and he'd show them his true strength.

Laying down on his back, he began doing situps, pushing his body until he passed out from exhaustion.

Eyes closing, he vowed he'd be great in taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu, and kenjutsu. He'd be stronger than any Hokage. Eyes turning blue once again, he promptly passed out.l

_Ichiraku's Ramen _

"One order of miso pork ramen." Naruto shouted out to the owner Teuchi. His daughter Ayame smiled at the sight of Naruto and hurried to the kitchen to make him his meal.

"I'd like the same." the Yondaime ordered as well. Moments later, two bowls of ramen were brought out to father and son and the two began slurping their noodles downs as fast as possible.

"This meal's on the house, for the present Hokage and his son." Teuchi said, smiling as both blondes finished their meals quickly.

"Son, do you know what happens tomorrow after the graduation ceremony?" Yondaime asked, glancing at his son for a second.

"The graduating genin get sent off to three man teams under a jounin." Naruto replied hastily, digging into his next bowl of miso pork.

"Eventually yes. The top nine genin after graduation get sent to a personal jounin instructor who will teach them advanced jutsus rather than the basic academic ones." the Yondaime replied.

"So when do we go on teams?"

"Six months after you train, you'll have a month adjust to the new team before you head into the chuunin exams. I need you to be as strong as you can be Naruto, I want you to take my place as Godaime, but in order to do that you have to learn everything your teacher teaches you, especially yours."

"Whose my teacher?" Naruto asked.

"Hatake Kakashi, a pupil of mines from when I was still teaching. He also known as Konoha Copy Nin Kakashi or Sharingan Kakashi, he like me knows over a thousand jutsus, except he stole a lot of them. You will be training under him, if you are satisfactory under his care, he will teach you my favorite jutsu, the Rasengan." Minato said proudly, knowing his son would do well.

"What about the Hiriashin no Jutsu?" Naruto asked, folding his arms across his chest.

"I don't know ahout that one." Minato replied with a sadistic smile.

"Teme." Naruto muttered under his breath.

"I heard that…" Minato said, using the Hiriashin to smack Naruto in the back of the head, and then disappear a few feet away from him. A scowl marred his whiskered face as Naruto bolted after his father, tossing a couple of ryo behind him for Teuchi's tip.

"You ready to get something to drink?" Minato asked as Naruto sped up to him.

"Yea, I'm ready." Naruto said.

"You aren't mad about what I just did?" Minato asked warily, glancing at his son.

"Nah." Naruto said with a glee on his face. "Hey dad. Super Peverted Sexy no Jutsu." Naruto bellowed, transforming himself in Yukani and a blond version of Naruto. The Yukani henge proceeded to grope on the blond Yondaime, with the Naruto version grabbing on his ass.

Minato screamed, flying backwards as a stream of blood shot out from his nose, knocking him unconscious.

"That is a useful jutsu, I just beat the Yondaime with it." Naruto said smirking, walking over to his father and picking him up, hoisting him on his shoulder. "To Crazy Horse it is."

_Training Field 7_

_I will kill Itachi…_

_No matter what it takes._

"Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!" A huge ball of fire was propelled from the sixteen year old's mouth lighting up the sky with its intensity.

_How could he kill father?_

_Father loved him, more so than me._

_How could he disgrace the Uchiha Clan?_

"ITACHI!" Uchiha Sasuke bellowed activating his Sharingan, before resuming his training relentlessly.

_Training Field 44 aka Forest of Death_

"Even if it takes my life, I will prove that the fires of springtime youth still burn in me Gai-sensei!" Rock Lee yelled.

"Lee!" a teary eyed Maito Gai yelled.

"Gai-sensei!" Rock Lee joined in, rushing towards his sensei and hugging him.

Off to the side, Hatake Kakashi, Neji Hyuuga and Tenten watched in disgusted.

"They have to be gay." Tenten grimaced at the sight, looking away from the two.

"They disgrace the shinobi with their un-civilized actions." Neji said in frustration, this display of affection cutting into the seventeen year old's training time.

"Whatever." Kakashi said, bored in his own right. He would find the son of his sensei and get a feel for him from afar before the proper meeting tomorrow. He turned from the group and began walking away.

"Where are you going my eternal rival, I have a challenge for you!" Gai yelled out to Kakashi.

"Did you say something Gai." Kakashi replied never turning around.

"Damn you and your hip attitude Kakashi." Gai muttered, cursing himself for not being as cool as his eternal rival.

_Crazy Horse Bar_

Deep within the recesses of his perverted induced unconsciousness, Minato felt several slaps stinging his face.

_What the fuck? It must be Yukina-chan, damn her…_

"Wake up teme!"

_That little runt…_

_Wait till I get him drunk and ready, I wasn't trained by Jiraiya-sensei for nothing._

Minato slowly got up, opening his eyes as Naruto poured a bit of sake in a shot glass and passed it to him. Pouring himself a shot, Naruto held it high in the air and said, "A toast. To graduating tomorrow and training under this Kakashi guy." Naruto said, and after bumping glasses with the Yondaime's, the two swallowed it quick, Naruto coughing at the burning sensation in the back of his throat.

"Sake sucks old man." he said with a slight hiccup.

"Whatever sensuous." Minato replied, sliding his glass towards Naruto.

"Sensuous!? What the hell does that mean?" Naruto asked.

"It's a game I play with the other guys. If we are drinking and you are closest to the bottle, you have to refill for everybody. It's called sensuous since you is closest to the alcohol. Now give a refill baka!" Minato said, leaning back in his chair.

"Baka huh! Would you like to see my Super Perverted Sexy no Jutsu again?" Naruto asked, refilling both shot glasses.

Minato shook his head fervently.

The two drank in silence for a bit, Minato ordering a pitcher of some dark ale.

"So, you into any chicks, or are you gay?" Minato asked. He didn't really mean to be offensive, but he knew he didn't know much about his son, other than to be the strongest Hokage that the Leaf Village ever produced.

Naruto shrugged. "No, I'm not gay. I don't know, I just get so annoyed by these fan girls sometimes, they just want me because I'm your son, so I really haven't got to know too many of them." Naruto finished, tilting his mug of ale back and swallowing some of the cold bitter fluid. Wiping the foam off his mouth, he turned to stare at his father.

"They also like you cause you have my looks. I know I'm sexy, I used to get chase by fangirls all the time, and it did get annoying."

"For example, at the academy Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino are both into Sasuke, and they're the hottest chicks there. Then there's Hyuuga Hinata who I'm sure has had a crush on me for some time, but she's all shy and stuff and I don't like that." Naruto continued over semi-glazed eyes.

Minato reached into his vest and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. Pulling one out, he slid the pack over to Naruto. "Go ahead and have one, I know you smoke them when I'm not around." Minato smirked, lighting his up with the tip of his finger.

Naruto reached down and grabbed one as well, lighting it up off the tip of his father's proffered finger.

"But if you wanna know who I like, turn around." Naruto whispered to his father, blowing smoke in his face.. The Hokage turned around and nearly passed out again. Slowly swaying into the bar again was Mitarashi Anko, her top only covered by the fishnet and trenchcoat that left plenty to the imagination.

Naruto's breath caught in his throat as he watched her walk to the bartender. Lavender hair and golden brown eyes. He felt a little stream of blood slide down his nose and looked away from the beauty that was Anko.

"Are you fucking serious?" Minato asked.

Naruto nodded. "Sexy and dangerous, what more could you asked for pops?"

"You're right about the dangerous part. You sure know how to pick 'em kid." Minato replied. He needed another shot. His son was crushing on that Mitarashi chick, didn't he know who she was!?

"I gotta go pee." Naruto said, standing up and running towards the bathroom, leaving his lit cigarette in the ashtray. Minato was lost in thoughts moments later and didn't notice that Anko had walked over to his table, a mug of ale in her hand.

"How are you doing Hokage-sama?" Minato turned to look at the snake mistress standing next to him.

"How are you Anko?"

"Just got back from the mission in Kirigakure." She said, tilting her cup back and drinking some of her ale.

"So I'm guessing everything went well then?" the Yondaime asked.

"Hai! Kisame is busy trying to recruit Zabuza Momochi and his apprentice into the Akatsuki. If accepted, the Akatsuki would have two of the Legendary Swordsmen from the Mist. Assassination would be the best course to follow, Hokage-sama." Anko replied.

"Please Anko-san, sit down." Minato responded, suddenly remembering his son's crush on the ANBU Captain.

Sitting down, Anko looked at the Yondaime for further instruction.

"Relax Anko, drink something and be happy. Order dango if you'd like." Minato slurred out.

"You aren't hitting on me or anything? You are a married Hokage after all." Anko said, then leaned towards the Yondaime's face. "Although I can make exceptions." She said teasingly, drinking some more of her ale.

"You sure are a handful, Mitarashi-san. Are you assuming that a Kage and a jounin cannot have a drink together without some sort of hidden message behind it?" Minato raised his eyebrows at her.

"Possibly. Tell me Hokage-sama."

"Oh you'll see, I find it pretty fucking funny myself." Minato replied, blowing smoke into the air.

Anko seeing the second lit cigarette in the ashtray asked, "Who's here with you."

Suddenly the doors to the bathroom busted open and Naruto came running out. "Hey dad, have you seen An…" Seeing his current crush there with his father, who had a cynical grin by the way was enough to stop Naruto in his tracks.

Anko's coat opened just enough for Naruto to see some cleavage and suddenly he was sent flying across the room, spewing blood everywhere. Minato got up and looked at his son, "He'll be out for a while." With that, he gave Anko a wave and a grin, then disappearing with his unconscious son.

Looking up at the bottle of sake calling her name, she stared at the ceiling before muttering, "Kami, why me?"

The bottle of sake didn't stand a chance.

AN: Just thought I'd release this second chapter on the day of my 21st B-day. I don't know what the pairings will be, feel free to make suggestions. No yaoi or Hina/Naru though. Please review people and I promise to get the next chapter up ASAP! Even if it's just to tell me I suck or something, just leave a review.


	3. The Sexiest Kunoichi in Konoha

The Road Less Taken

The Road Less Taken

Chapter 3: The Sexiest Kunoichi in Konoha

By DanielNieves

_A/N: Thanks for all of you that have reviewed the chapter. Though on a side note, please, if you do review the chapter, say something more than, "I liked this chapter.", or "This sucks." Let me know what you think so I can improve on the following chapters. Thanks. Oh yea, pairings are still up in the air. But Naruto will not be paired with Hinata or any other male character. I kinda would like to write a Naruto/Anko or Naruto/Temari but let me know what you think. Thanks._

_Konoha Ninja Academy_

Naruto's head hurt.

It seriously fucking did.

He could literally kill his dad, the prick had woken him up at 5:00 in the morning and told him to get ready for the graduation ceremony. The worst part about was that he had only gotten about four hours of sleep. The last thing he remembered was staring at Mitarashi-san's breasts and then promptly passing out from blood loss.

It probably didn't do any good to have Ero-sennin as a godfather.

Stupid Icha Icha novels…

Quickly he dressed himself in his black and orange two piece outfit, black shirt underneath. Walking over to the bathroom, he stood in front of the mirror and grabbed some gel to spike his hair up.

After wrapping his shuriken and kunai holster around his leg, he decided to head out to the academy.

Before he'd head out though, he wanted to stop by his brother's room.

Kakashi was fast asleep on his bed, snoring softly, his chest rising up and down to the rhythm of his snores. Naruto sat on the edge of his bed, taking extra care not to wake him up.

He loved his little brother, he really did. Despite his brother's power trip and Uchiha arrogance, he still loved him. Memories washed over him, of them as kids, running around the village pulling pranks. A laugh escaped his mouth and he covered it up quickly, running his hand through Kakashi's jet black hair.

Kakashi opened his eyes groggily.

"O-nii-san?"

"Shh. I'll see you at graduation."

Reaching over to his brother, he wrapped his arms around him in a brotherly embrace.

"Get off me baka!" Kakashi whispered angrily, trying to wrestle his brother off.

"Get back to sleep Uchiha." Naruto shot back, letting go and standing up.

Kakashi rolled over and promptly did that.

Smiling at his little brother, Naruto left his room and headed out for the graduation ceremony.

Walking outside his house at his brisk pace, he noticed Uchiha Sasuke following behind him, a pack of fan girls rushing to flirt with the two of them.

"What's up dobe?" Sasuke asked, smirking at the look of indignation on Naruto's face.

"Shut up duck-head." Naruto replied, using the shunshin to disappear.

"Bastard." Sasuke said, following suit.

Though to outsiders it might not seem like it, but Naruto and Sasuke were best friends, pretty much brothers.

During their younger years, they hated each other. Sasuke, coming from the prestigious Uchiha clan was cocky and arrogant, while Naruto, son of the Hokage was more humble. Yet, after Uchiha Itachi's betrayal and the murder of his father, the two boys became close, more than just friends.

Though unspoken, their bond was quite strong, even if both Sasuke and Naruto denied it. Then the two of them went to the Konoha Ninja Academy and became closer in their first year, always on the run from annoying fangirls. After three years in the academy, they could finally admit that they were best friends.

Sasuke smiled as he remembered Naruto's fourteenth birthday.

_Flashback_

_October 10_

_Just Outside Uchiha Manor_

"_Hey dobe. Shouldn't you be at your house getting ready for your birthday party, eh Naruto?" Sasuke asked._

"_Bleh. I don't really want to go. Dad's being a dick again, I get the fact that he's Hokage and all, but he should at least be able to make it to one of my birthdays." Naruto complained, pulling out a cigarette out of his kunai holster._

"_Yeah, well at least you have a dad." Sasuke replied abruptly, staring up at the skies to where he believed his father to be. _

_I will kill you Itachi, for Uchiha Fugaku, as well as for the rest of the Uchiha clan. Rest in peace, otousan._

"_You know Sasuke, I could watch you mope and brood about killing Itachi and all, but I think I'd rather train. Teach me a jutsu, please Sasuke-chan!" Naruto smirking impishly, knowing damn well it was an insult to call him use 'chan' at the end of his name._

_Sasuke furrowed his brow in frustration._

"_I'd watch it there Godaime-sama. I just might intend to kill you and become the first Uchiha Hokage." Sasuke said tight-lipped, pulling a cigarette out of his pocket. Lighting his fingertip on fire using chakra, he lit his and Naruto's cigarette quickly._

"_God, good think the Kyuubi regenerates any wound and such, I'd have black lungs a long time ago." Naruto joked._

_Sasuke swiveled his eyes at Naruto._

"_You really wanna learn a new jutsu?" Sasuke asked._

"_Yeah, what will you teach me?" Naruto asked eagerly, getting giddy at the thought._

"_I will teach you Katon: __Goukakyuu no Jutsu__." Sasuke said, a look of arrogance on his face at the thought of teaching a future Hokage._

_Naruto ignored it and tossed his cigarette to the side._

_Learning a jutsu was way cooler than smoking._

_Minutes later they were out on the lake by the Uchiha Manor, knee deep in ice cold water._

"_Teach me Sasuke-kun."_

"_Shut up dobe." Sasuke said. "Now memorize these handseals, ram, tiger, and horse." Sasuke said, quickly running through the movements._

_Clumsily, Naruto followed through the hand seals._

"_You got to be sharper with the hand seals for this to be executed properly." Sasuke admonished._

"_I've got an idea. Tajuu Bunshin no Jutsu." Naruto cried out, before two hundred clones popped out._

_Sasuke's eyes nearly popped out._

"_Where the hell did you learn that?" Sasuke asked._

"_I stole my dad's scroll and this jutsu was in one of them." Naruto replied cheekily._

"_What do you want us to do." The shadow clones asked simultaneously._

"_You're gonna help me learn this jutsu, starting off by practicing the hand seals." Naruto said, before continuing, "Ram, tiger, and horse." Naruto mimicked Sasuke's movements and the clones nodded their understanding of it._

"_Why are you having them practice it?" Sasuke asked._

"_Because, once they disappear from existence, all their memories are loaded onto me, and I gain their experience." _

"_Isn't that cheating?" Sasuke responded harshly._

"_You have a fucking Sharingan, I wouldn't talk there Sasuke-chan." Naruto quipped, earning a glare from the Uchiha._

"_I only have two tomoes dobe. I can't copy everything, especially if the opponent is faster than me, I only see glimpses of an attack, but it wouldn't matter." Sasuke growled out._

_Hours later…_

"_Combine your chakra with fire element and blow it out through your mouth. The words aren't spoken, but thought out loud. Watch me." Sasuke ordered._

_Ram, tiger, horse._

_Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu… Sasuke bellowed in his mind, drawing his chakra and infusing it with his fire element to blow a large fireball from his mouth._

"_Wow." Naruto said in awe._

_Running through the handseals himself, he thought the jutsu out loud and blew out a little stream of fire through his mouth._

"_Fuck! Tajuu Bunshin no Jutsu!"_

_Another two hundred shadow clones appeared. "Yes boss?" They asked._

"_Keep practicing." Naruto said, his voice hoarse._

"_Hai." They all chimed in at once._

"_It's okay Naruto, it took me two weeks to do it properly." Sasuke said, watching Naruto stress himself out to learn the jutsu._

"_I don't give a fuck. I'm learning this jutsu before I go to the birthday party." Naruto spat out, looking down at his clothes to see them ragged and burned._

_Ram, tiger, horse._

_KATON: GOKAKYUU NO JUTSU!!_

_Naruto imbued large portion of his remaining chakra with fire element and blew a huge fireball from his mouth._

_Sasuke stared in amazement. _

_Within hours, Naruto learned a jutsu that had taken him two weeks to do._

"_We should head to the birthday party, you should get some new digs you know." Sasuke said, looking in disgust at Naruto's burnt clothing._

_Naruto nodded weakly, reaching into his holster for a soldier pill. After popping one into his mouth, he felt his energy return to him._

"_Did I leave my clothes here from last time?"_

"_Yeah, kaasan washed them."_

_Naruto nodded._

_He pulled a cigarette out of his pocket. He lit it up by using a small amount of chakra. Apparently one of the bunshin had learned it while trying to make a Gokakyuu._

"_Hey Sasuke…" Naruto began, taking a deep drag on his cigarette, not knowing how to continue._

"_Yeah, dobe." Sasuke said dryly, a small twinkle in his eyes as he watched smoke curdle around his body._

"_You know you're my best friend right?" Naruto asked, lying back on the dewy grass._

"_This isn't gonna end up as some kind of gay thing is it?" Sasuke replied, and the two boys chuckled._

"_I don't think so. I'm just glad we're friends Sasuke. You can never have two many good friends." _

_Sasuke smirked at him, nodding shortly there after._

_An awkward silence hung between the two of them for a few moments._

"_We're more than friends Naruto. You are my brother. The one and only one." Sasuke said, opening up a slight bit. "We should head to the party, Kushina-obasan is gonna be pissed if we show up late."_

"_Let me go grab my clothes then."_

_As the boys stood up, Sasuke playfully shoved Naruto._

"_Eh, watch it. I've got a new jutsu that'll even beat a Kage."_

"_Whatever dobe."_

_End_

Naruto's stomach fluttered about in his stomach.

They had called his name out to receive his hitai-ate and a mass crowd of Konoha-nin stared at him, the future Godaime. It was history in the making, and being the son of Yondaime didn't cheapen it, instead forcing Naruto in the shadows of his father as they all looked at him to be the next Namikaze Minato.

Legs wobbly, he slowly stepped up to the stage, where many other genin stood. Umino Iruka was up there as well, holding Naruto's hitai-ate in his hand, and Naruto walked up to shinobi he had considered a father figure in his father's frequent absence.

Tears of joy in his eyes he bowed to the chuunin who took the honor of wrapping the hitai-ate around his head, a physical representation of the Leaf Village itself.

Iruka extended his hand, which Naruto took and shook.

"Do you up for some ramen after this?"

"Do you really have to ask me that Iruka-sensei?" Naruto smirked, walking back to the line of genin who stood there proudly.

Minato flicked his cigarette out to the side, and stood up out of his seats in full Hokage robes. Walking majestically towards the stage, the young genin stood in awe at the sheer power the Hokage's aura held around him.

Minato stepped up to the graduating genin. Nine genin stood there proudly, hitai-ate beaming brightly in the sunlight.

He shook hands with the first eight after a quick salute and finally stepped up to his son.

"I'm proud of you Naruto-kun. Kushina would have been proud." The Yondaime and future Godaime saluted each other before shaking hands.

"Haruno Sakura, Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Chouji, Nara Shikamaru, Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, Hyuuga Hinata, Uchiha Sasuke, and lastly Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto, you are the newly commissioned genin of the Leaf Village. Will you serve me and any Hokage following me and my successors faithfully?" Minato asked.

"Hai!" The newly graduated genin responded simultaneously.

"Now I shall assign you to your jounin instructors. For the next year you will assist them in missions, and finally take the chuunin exams in six months if they feel you are ready. Haruno Sakura, you're instructor will be the famous Sannin Tsunade."

Sakura stood there horrified, blushing horribly. Tsunade the Sannin would be her instructor. She wouldn't survive, Tsunade had to be the greatest medid-nin in the world.

Help me Kami…

"Yamanaka Ino, your instructor will be Yuuhi Kurenai." Minato boomed out, and Kurenai, the recently commissioned Jounin walked up to the stage to meet her disciple.

As Kurenai passed, none of the boys could help but stare at the gorgeous woman. Kiba was literally drooling, looking like a smaller version of Akamaru, the boy's animal familiar.

"With all due respect Ino-san, if you're just another one of those annoying Sasuke fan bitches than a real kunoichi, please drop out now and don't waste my time." With an air of arrogance, the genjutsu mistress walked off.

Ino hastily followed.

I'm a real kunoichi you bitch! She screamed mentally.

"Akimichi Choji, your Jounin instructor will be Akimichi Choza. Nara Shikamaru, your Jounin instructor will be Nara Shikaku. Inuzuka Kiba, your instructor will be Inuzuka Hana. Aburame Shino, your instructor will be Aburame Shibi. Hyuuga Hinata, you're instructor will be Sarutobi Asuma. Uchiha Sasuke, you're instructor is Hatake Kakashi." Minato continued, smiling at what would come next.

Naruto had a look of confusion on his face.

"Namikaze Naruto, you're instructor will be Mitarashi Anko." Minato finished.

"What!" Naruto exclaimed, and then Anko shunshined in front of him, a dagger held to Naruto's privates.

"You got a problem there squirt?" Anko asked mischievously.

Naruto's eyes nearly bulged out of his sockets.

Yes, he would murder his father tonight and become Godaime.

His death was assured.

Rock Lee was in the background watching and ran up to Naruto hugging him. "Naruto! You are the epitome of Youthfulness, the flames of springtime youth burn brightly within you and your sexy sensei!"

Slowly and cautiously, he peeled himself away from the ecstatic Lee.

"Yosh!" Naruto said, smiling brightly.

"Ero-baki!" Anko yelled, smacking him upside the head.

"Bitch…" He grumbled under his throat.

Anko snaked her arms around his neck, licking her lips as she cut his cheek with her kunai. "What was that, baki?"

Naruto trembled in her snakelike embrace and felt the beginnings of what felt like an arousal and took off. The crowd at the graduation laughed at the genin's reaction.

"Thanks Hokage-sama." Anko smirked, waving as she took off after Naruto.

Minato could only laugh and light up another cigarette.

Naruto as well as Yukani would kill him later.

"I feel bad for Naruto." Sasuke commented to his newly appointed sensei.

"Whatever…" Kakashi droned, pulling out his Icha Icha novel.

Naruto returned to the Crazy Horse bar. Technically he was underage for another two years, but he was the Hokage's son, so they never bothered him. He sat alone all the way in the back, slowly drinking his beer.

He had evaded Anko for about an hour now and had been switching between shots and beer at the bar.

How could his otousan do this to him?

Why Kami?

He leaned back in his chair, groaning loudly.

"Hey baki!" He raised his head to see Anko sitting there at his table.

He didn't reply at first, merely drank some more of his beer.

"Don't be that way _Naruto-kun._" she said huskily, waiting for his reaction. Apperantly, it was not the one she expected.

"Don't give me that shit, Mitarashi-sensei." Naruto growled out, standing up on his own two feet.

He walked over to the bar, and paid his tab, walking outside.

Not a good idea, apparently he was quite drunk. He fell flat on his ass, leaning backwards against the wall of the bar.

"Get up baka!" Anko demanded, grabbing him by the jacket and lifting him up to his feet.

"Get off me." Naruto snarled, pulling away from her, digging in deep to the Kyuubi to cure him of his drunken state.

**Fuck off kit! Kyuubi growled at him.**

Fuck yourself you son of a bitch!

"What is it with you!?" Anko asked.

"I might find you attractive Mitarashi-sensei, but I will not let you make a fool of me." Naruto growled out.

"You find me attractive Naruto-kun? You, the son of Hokage, the crush of hundreds of fan-girls is interested in little me? I find that hard to believe. Plus I'm your Jounin-sensei, not your academy crush." Anko spat at him angrily.

Fucking emotional genin. We're shinobi for fuck's sake! She thought angrily.

"You were my academy crush, baka!" Naruto fumbled through his pockets for a cigarette.

Anko raised her eyebrows.

"No way."

"Of course to a deadly kunoichi like you it doesn't mean anything. Just another tool you could use against someone, and I get that, it's our job and I'll probably do the same someday, but it sucks. Always wanting someone you shouldn't, as shinobi we're supposed to live an emotionless life, yet I can't be that. I care about people, maybe not so much for stupid fangirls, maybe I care for the wrong people, but I'm far from some spoiled son of a Hokage."

"Cause it's so hard to be the son of a Hokage." Anko replied sarcastically.

She wasn't sure why she was putting up with this genin.

"Why do I bother with you? You're just another kunoichi." and with that Naruto headed off.

Anko was outraged. How dare he?

The nerve of this fucking genin!

She sprinted towards him, kunai in hand. He stopped in his tracks and blew another puff of smoke into the air. She grabbed his hair from behind, exposing his neck, and then slid the kunai against it.

"I'd think again before turning your back on me, Naruto-sama." She spoke dangerously in a crisp, brittle tone.

"What makes you think I did?" A kunai was suddenly pressed to the back of her neck.

Kage Bunshin? But when? She thought.

After slitting the bunshin's throat and laughing as it poofed out of existence, she began walking away from the Hokage's son.

"Training 44, Forest of Death. Six o'clock sharp, see you tomorrow kid." Anko said to him before.

"Who's running now Mitarashi-sensei?"

"I'd be careful with what you say if I were you, I'm not the snake mistress for nothing." Anko warned him.

"I'd be careful too, I'm not gonna be Hokage for nothing." Naruto shot back.

Finally sick and tired of his mouth, she turned around and stormed up to him.

What she did next surprised him and would forever burn in his memory.

She kissed him, hard and passionate, and then shunshined away.

Naruto stood there, more confused than ever, with the taste of the sexiest kunoichi in Konoha burning on his lips.

A/N: HA! Like how I ended the chapter? R & R. Let me know what you think, and no the Naru/Anko pairing isn't definite, but I'm definitely feeling it so far. Also, it won't be a harem, I'm not really into those, I think it degrades Naruto a bit as a person.


	4. Rejection: Naruto versus Anko

The Road Less Taken

_**The Road Less Taken**_

_**Chapter 4: Rejection: Naruto vs Anko**_

_**By: DanielNieves**_

A/N: Thanks for all the reviews given, both on as well as . Still haven't decided on the pairings mainly because I'm pretty spontaneous and while I want a Naru/Anko fic, who knows what I'll want in the future. Though this fic is not a harem, it does not mean Naruto will be tied down to the chick he cares about and stay there like some faithful puppy dog.

Warnings: Definitely lemons in this chappie. But it doesn't mean anything!

"O-NII-SAN!!" Naruto could hear his otouto calling out his name, trying to wake him up. Grumbling, Naruto turned in his sleep, only to wake up to a sharp pain in his crotch area. Quickly, he shot himself out of bed to find a glaring Anko.

Kakashi could only stare in awe at Mitarashi Anko. She wasn't the hottest in Konoha, well not to Kakashi anyway.

Yamanaka Ino was.

A little bit of blood dribbled out of his nose, hanging out like an unwanted guest.

"Mitarashi-sensei?" He asked quizzically, confused as to why she was in his room.

"Get up baka! You're late!" Anko spoke, yanking Naruto off of the bed.

"I'm in my boxers, Mitarashi-sensei! Are you trying to ogle my goodies ero-sensei?" Naruto asked dryly, walking over to his closet.

"I don't see what's so good about them!" She continued, returning the sarcasm to the cocky genin.

Kakashi could only stare in wonder at the blatant disrespect his nii-san had for his sensei. Even he showed Anko more respect when she showed up at his door at five in the morning. She had interrupted his secret Sharingan training and even then he remembered common courtesy.

Ignoring her previous comment, he stared at his alarm clock, and he saw that it was five past five. "I though you said to meet you there at six. How am I late sensei?" he asked, reaching into his closet and grabbing his usual orange and black suit.

"I changed my mind. You have a problem gaki?" She snapped, her temper rising at the genin. Seeing his preferred attire, she continued, "Don't you have any real shinobi attire, rather than that kiddie shit?" she asked.

Kakashi knew where this could head.

No one disrespected Naruto's favorite color, orange.

No one.

"No." he replied shortly, not bothering with honorifics, dressing himself.

"That's gonna change real soon." She responded, just as cross as he'd been with her.

Finally Naruto had enough.

"What's wrong with orange and black?" He asked outraged.

"I'm not dignifying that with a response, Naruto-san." Anko shoot off condescendingly, sitting down on Naruto's bed, a nice and soft king-sized bed with silk sheets. God, how good it must be to be the son of the Yondaime.

"How'd you get in here anyway. I thought vampire's needed an invitation." Anko gritted her teeth and smiled, then promptly threw Kakashi under the bus by staring him down..

"Ah, I smell a rat otouto? You know what happens to rats, especially Uchiha rats?" Naruto asked casually,

Kakashi gulped and shunshined as far away as he could. "You teme!" Naruto exclaimed, looking over the spot he shunshined at.

"Don't blame the kid, if a kunoichi looked half as good as I do, you'd open the door as well." Anko said cheerily, motioning for him to follow her out of the window.

"I don't think you're that pretty. Just a bit above average. Nothing special though. I'm guessing you might have been showing your not-so-goodies. But when you're a kid you don't really know better." Naruto rambled on until a kunai was found pressing against his chest, with an explosive tag wrapped around it.

"Unless you want me to shove this kunai through your heart and set it off, I suggest you shut the fuck up Naruto-_kun_!" Anko gritted out, lips pulled back in a snarl.

"I'm guessing I hit a spot then, sensei?" Naruto couldn't help himself.

"You couldn't hit my spot if you tried," She leered at him. "But if it makes you feel manly and all, I'll let you think you did." She said coolly, effectively shutting Naruto up. Silently the two of them walked towards the forest of death, both jounin and genin planning the other's death.

_Yondaime's office_

Paperwork! Fuck! Namikaze Minato thought somberly, looking at the stack of papers that he had to sort through today. God he just wanted to kick back in his chair and sleep the rest of the day away.

But as fates would have it, most of the papers were documents containing diplomatic treaties with Iwagakure as well as a few important missions.

Fuck it, he was Hokage after all.

Leaning back in his chair, he stared up at the ceiling, while fumbling through his pockets for a cigarette.

After lighting it up, he leaned back and closed his eyes and remembered the good days when Kushina was alive, when he was truly alive. Now, he was just a shadow of the Yellow Flash Iwagakure knew him as.

After her death he pretty much stopped caring, he stopped training, and most importantly he stopped loving.

Well, Naruto at least anyways.

The poor kid suffered the brute force of the Hokage's despair since the death of Uzumaki Kushina.. Ever so vibrant, he was a lot like her, even if he did inherit Minato's looks.

"MINATO-KUN! WAKE THE FUCK UP!" Yukani yelled, startling the Hokage, who's cigarette went flying into the stack of papers.

"Have you ever thought that maybe, just maybe yelling at a half asleep guy with a lit cigarette might not be the best of ideas, Yuka-chan?" He chastised her as he put his cigarette out.

The cigarette had landed on a scroll but had not damaged it too bad.

Minato opened the scroll, in it contained an S ranked assassination mission.

Looking at the target of the assassination, Minato groaned.

"What's wrong Nato-kun?" Yukani asked.

The dark haired Uchiha kunoichi crawled on top of the desk, knocking the other documents askew, breasts heaving out of her top.

S ranked mission be damned, he would fuck his wife and figure it out later.

"Come here Nato-kun!" She moaned, gripping her own breasts in her hands and massaging them, frankly, turning Minato on.

Yeah, fuck S-ranked missions.

Life as Hokage was good.

_Training Field Seven_

"You're late sensei!" Sasuke admonished the now arriving Hatake Kakashi.

"Yeah, about that. I was on my way here when I stumbled into a drunk woman who didn't know where she was. I took her to her house and now I'm here." Kakashi lied, eyes twinkling merrily.

"Whatever." Sasuke replied sardonically.

"Tell me about yourself Uchiha Sasuke. We weren't able to talk much after graduation. What are your dreams, things you like and dislike?" Kakashi asked, leaning against a tree, and pulling out the newest Icha Icha novel.

"Well, my name is Uchiha Sasuke. I like training with Namikaze Naruto as well as hanging out or pulling pranks on clan elders. I dislike fangirls, and my dream, my dream is to kill my brother Uchiha Itachi and not become anything like him." Sasuke finished, a little happy to get that off his chest.

Kakashi nodded, and began, "I'm Hatake Kakashi. I like reading Icha Icha novels and stealing enemy's jutsus for my own. I dislike shinobi who hold no value for their comrade's lives. My dream is to one day be married and have a son, as well as meet the author of Icha Icha face to face."

Sasuke stared at his sensei. He was a weird one.

"So what's the training I'm here for?" Sasuke asked.

Kakashi dangled a silver ball in his hand. "You have to take this from me. Fail and you head back to the academy."

"Fine then. Prepare to face a real Uchiha, Kakashi-sensei." Sasuke said cockily, slipping into a quick taijutsu stance.

"How about then, Sasuke-san, Sharingan versus Sharingan." Kakashi said, pulling his hitai-ate up and centering it on his forehead, revealing his single Sharingan eye that give him the moniker Copy Nin Kakashi.

Sasuke gathered up chakra, using his eyes as focal points as they suddenly turned blood red, both eyes with two black tomoes spinning wildly in them.

"Begin." Kakashi said, both shinobi charging at each other.

_Central Park_

Namikaze Kakashi walked around the park, filling up his chakra reserves. A couple of villagers ran up to him. Mildly interested, Kakashi looked their way and stood there impassively.

"You are the ototou of Namikaze Uzumaki Naruto, eh?" A large, heavyset kid asked.

"Hai." Kakashi nodded.

"How can you not detest your brother?" Another one asked, this time an average sized teen asked.

"He is my nii-san. What do you have against Naruto, eh?" Kakashi asked. Dual Sharingan eyes hidden by a henge, he stood in silence and waited for the other to speak."

"You're brother is a demon, all of our parents have told us so."

The skinny fuck, Kakashi thought..

"If your parents were smart, in case they forgot, Naruto is the Yondaime's firstborn, supposing I report you and your parents, Yondaime might forgive you, but your parents would face immediate execution and he'd toss their heads on the outskirts of Konoha with every one else that called Naruto a demon. So you might want to be careful on what you call my brother. I might be tempted to take your heads myself." Kakashi said evenly, shoving his way past them.

"Get back here you spoiled son of a demon lover." The fat one charged at Kakashi.

Gathering up as much chakra as his twelve year old body cold handle, he went through a series of handseals.

Ram, tiger, horse, dog, rabbit, dragon.

Holding a chakra out, he thanked his godfather Hatake Kakashi for this one. That was a grueling day.

_Forest of Death_

"_Kaka-sensei!" 11 year old Kakashi whined. "Teach me, Kaka-sensei."_

_Looking up from his Icha Icha novel, he stared at his godson. Ruffling the kids spiky black hair, he asked, "Teach you what?"_

"_A powerful jutsu, like your Chidori or Raikiri, please Kaka-sensei?" Kakashi begged, giving the perverted jounin the Puppy Eyes no Jutsu._

_Kakashi resisted. "No, Hokage-sama would kick my ass for that one. You're much to young."_

"_Come on Ero-obasan."_

"_No!"_

"_Ero-obasan."_

_Annoyed, Kakashi smacked the boy over the head with the Icha Icha novel. "I'm trying to enjoy my novel, go pester your otosan for a jutsu." Kakashi suggested, opening his novel once more._

"_If you don't I'll tell Shizune and Tsunade that you want them in a threesome, whatever that is." Chibi Kakashi said, grinning madly._

_Hatake Kakashi hung his head in defeat._

_Didn't the kid realize that he lived for the Icha Icha novels?_

_That day, the two Kakashi's created a technique for themselves._

_2 months later, both of them were able to use it._

_Raidori Flash…One Thousand Flashes of Lightning._

_The basic concept was the user would combine as much chakra with Lightning release forming two perfect orbs of lightning chakra, one orb with positive energy, the other full of negative energy. The user would then bring both orbs together causing the orbs to disperse into a thousand separate rods of lightning, hence the name One Thousand Flashes of Lightning._

_Hatake was able to use up to six hundred separate flashes of lightning, while Chibi Kakashi could only use a hundred, due to undeveloped chakra control._

Both of his hands were spread out, two orbs of lightning chakra taking shape, crackling the air as lightning whipped around him like a protective cocoon.

The villager wanted the Yondaime's son's head so bad that when he charged at him and saw the lightning chakra being created, he was flying towards to fast to halt.

He knew it was too late.

Namikaze Uchiha Kakashi would kill him and there was no stopping him.

Slowly, Kakashi brought his hands together, meshing the two orbs of positive and negative energy to explode into a thousand flashes of lightning.

The villager screamed.

One thousand blue flashes through his body, penetrating through him, guts and innards were pushed through his back from the blunt force of the blow.

Dying now, he saw the puddle of his own guts and unintentional urine piling up on the ground.

As he looked up, the final streak of lightning came rushing towards him.

Nerves fried, he couldn't move, his spine already obliterated with the rest of his body, and slowly the kunai shaped bolt of lightning pierced him between his eyes, slowly though as if the bolt itself was a sentient being, ready to take it's time with him. Slowly it pierced through his head, coming out the back of his skull.

The young villager fell to the floor, dead.

Kakashi's genjutsu was released.

The two villagers looked at him, horrified.

"That didn't really happen?" The fat one, who "died" asked.

"No. It's what could of happened if you had charged at me." Giving the two villagers one last glare with his blazing red eyes, he turned his back to them.

"If you ever talk about my nii-san or my otousan like that again, that's what will happen to you and your bigot parents. Never cross me again, do you understand?" It was a rhetorical question, he didn't need the answer and continued walking towards Hokage tower.

"Yes, Kakashi-sama." The two villagers said simultaneously, both on their knees.

_Forest of Death_

"So, are we going to pretend last night never happened or proceed to have hot monkey sex?" Naruto asked his jounin instructor Anko.

The glare she gave him was worth it.

"Get it through your head kid, last night never happened, nor will such a thing happen in the future. I am your jounin instructor and nothing more!" Anko reprimanded harshly.

"Why because I'm a genin?" Naruto asked, actually interested now.

"Because you're nothing but a spoiled kid whose always had it his way. Get it through your head future Rokudaime, to me you're trash and nothing more." Anko chastised him.

Her words stung deep.

Deeper than a lot of things said to him over his sixteen year life span.

Demon!! Monster! Trash! Killer! Kyuubi!

All those words blurred into his mind.

"Hurts don't it. To know you're useless, that you house the most powerful demon in the underworld but your still some snotnose genin trash. I don't judge you by the Kyuubi inside you, I'm judging you by you, and you're nothing but garbage. Hell I wouldn't be surprised if you die on our first mission together." Anko taunted, laughing cruelly.

Rather than breakdown like she expected him to do, he laughed it off.

"Sorry Mitarashi-sensei, but I'm gonna be Hokage, so until that day, I WON'T DIE!" He screamed at her, blue chakra bursting all around him.

"You want to fight me there gaki? You want to hit me? How about this, if you can tire me out fighting, a jounin I'll make you my apprentice and we'll go on a date, if you can't, you're shit out of luck and get sent back to the Academy for another year." Anko offered.

"Fine, except one thing, when I do tire you out, you'll make me your apprentice, but no date Anko. I think I invested my feelings into the wrong kunoichi. I'll be your apprentice for a year, and then we'll never have to see each other again. It's one thing to politely reject someone who like's you, it's another to cruelly turn them down and call them trash. You're no better than your sensei Mitarashi Anko, and if it was up to me, I would never be associated with you." Naruto growled out.

She stared at the genin in shock.

Bitter tears stung hot on his face, sliding down the curve of his whiskered cheeks. To be humiliated like Anko had done to him, the names and things she said, it had hurt.

A lot.

Because he had cared about her, and therefore cared about what she said.

Never again, he thought.

"I'd watch your mouth genin." Anko said eerily, her eyes flashing yellow for a second.

"How about you make me you psychotic bitch?" He replied, just as coldly.

With a flash, Anko had disappeared from sight.

Performing the handseal necessary for it, he whispered, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Instantly five clones of himself surrounded him, each standing guarding and warily searching for Anko's location.

Suddenly Anko shunshined in front of the clones and charged in, a kunai in each hand and one in her mouth. She was charging straight at him, moving liquidly like a snake. A kunai was thrusted into the first clone, spinning around him to get the second with a quick jab to the throat with a kunai.

Both clones turned to smoke. The other three stood in front of Naruto and she charged in headfirst stabbing the two on the left and right side with the kunai and slitting the other one's throat with the kunai in her mouth.

Before she could get any closer to Naruto, there was a sudden blast of fire coming her way.

Katon: Gokakyuu no Jutsu!

Cursing mentally, she use Kawarimi to change places with the clone she had set up to sneak attack Naruto from behind. Her clone instantly melted in the fire dissolving into mud. Naruto tried turning around and sidestepping Anko but her kunai caught his cheek, drawing a long line of blood.

"Fuck." Naruto hissed as she caught him by surprise, though he still had enough time to react to bring his right fist to her face, sending her stumbling forward.

Biting his thumb, he wiped it across a scroll where he sealed his Windmill Shuriken.

After a cloud of smoke it popped up and Naruto quickly grabbed it, getting ready to launch it at his sensei.

He launched a kunai at her, and she easily sidestepped it, but not quick enough to duck the punch that came to her stomach.

Before he could pull back and recover, snakes wrapped around his arm and pulled him back to an angry Anko, who looked more bloodthirsty than ever, if there was such a thing.

Without thinking twice, he hurled the windmill shuriken, slicing the snakes in half, but she quickly shunshined behind him before he could continue his offense.

A hard punch to his back sent him flying into the tree facefirst.

As he struggled to get up, he felt her warm hands snake around him. "I told you to watch your mouth gaki." She cooed in his ear, before slamming his face into the tree. "Give up now." She ordered seductively.

Naruto closed his eyes and began thinking as fast as he could.

She had the advantage, his back was to her and he was pressed up against a tree.

Her grip tightened.

"Just give up Naruto." She said, taking a long and slow tantalizing lick across the cut on his face.

With whatever energy he had left, he pushed back on her, but he grip didn't loosen. Mustering up some energy, he ran up on the tree he'd been pinned to and launched himself in the air, landing hard on Anko.

He tried to get off, but it was no use, she still had her grip around his arms and tight across the neck.

Personally Anko was amazed, though she'd never say it.

The baka had held on for pretty long, but sadly enough, not long enough to pass her standards, and those were pretty fucking high.

"Come on Naruto." She begged, pulling his neck back and biting on the soft juncture of muscle between his neck and collarbone, teeth digging deep and drawing blood.

Though Naruto would never admit it, the very act itself, the whole biting thing had gotten him pretty hard.

Unconsciously, his hands traveled down to her thighs, gripping them as he laid there in rapture to her bite.

Upon feeling Naruto's hands on her thighs, Anko couldn't help but moan a little, one hand reaching down into his jacket, and pulling the zipper down, exposing his black beater.

"Naruto…" She moaned, cooing softly into Naruto's ear as she trailed her tongue down his neck to find another place to bite. She let go of the hold she had on him and spun him to face her, pulling the sixteen year old on top of her.

Aroused would not be the greatest definition of what he was right now. He was beyond that, her she was, the kunoichi he'd lusted after since he turned thirteen, wriggling hard underneath him, grinding her crotch against the bulge of his pants.

Pushing her earlier words out of his mind, he bent his head down and took her lips demandingly, hands gripping her hips hard as she continued to grind against him. She captured his bottom lip between her teeth and clamped down on it, saliva mixing in with the steady flow of blood.

Hesitantly, she opened her mouth against her own volition, the nervous teen took the opportunity to slide his tongue into her mouth, fluids mixing, hearts racing, pounding in their chests like an angry Kyuubi trying to break the seal that tied him to Naruto. Slowly, he pulled back from the kiss and buried his face into the crook of her neck, as she hooked her hands underneath his shirt, clawing away at his back.

"Tell me when to stop…" Naruto begged, breath hard against her neck. Slowly he was losing control, blue eyes began to get darker, threatening to turn blood red any second. His canines began elongating, and finally red eyes peered into Anko's golden ones. "Please tell me when to stop…"

"Don't stop Naru-kun. Never stop…" Anko replied, grabbing at his jeans, fingers fumbling with his zipper.

Naruto stopped for the briefest of seconds and stared into her eyes. "Perhaps the Forest of Death is not the best place to try this, Anko."

Smiling, she unzipped his jeans and smiled as he sprang loose. "It's the best place to try it, it resembles the two of us Naruto. We're dangerous and deadly."

Nodding dumbly, he quickly peeled her shorts down. She was pantiless and completely exposed to him, tasty looking lips dripping in her juices. Losing the war of dominance, she moved deftly and pushed Naruto on his back. "Let me do this for you." Golden eyes pleaded for him to comply.

Naruto nodded and she crawled in between his knees. He wasn't the biggest she'd ever seen, not that she'd seen a lot of them, but he was definitely thick. Naruto bit his lip, fighting the urge to moan loudly as she took him into her mouth, saliva coating his throbbing member as her tongue began flickering around it snakelike.

Gripping his hair in frustration, he lied back in submission to her every whim. Lovingly, she worshipped him with her mouth, taking in a much as she could.

"Anko…I'm gonna come soon." He pleaded, yet she ignored him, nodding her understanding as she never stopped, bobbing slowly on him.

Finally she stopped momentarily to peel off her fishnet top, Anko's bare breasts and rock hard nipples almost too much for him to take.

"What are you doing?" He asked as she changed her position, her face back between his knees and her soaking pussy above his face, tempting him.

"Trust me." She whispered huskily, lowering herself on his face. Greedily, like a man starving began lapping up her juices by taking long, slow licks up her slit.

"God…."

After cleaning her off with his tongue, he grabbed her ass hard as he took her super sensitive clit in his mouth and began sucking it softly.

"Fuck, I'm gonna come too." Anko groaned, and the two climaxed simultaneously, both coated in the others juices.

For moments they laid back in silence, neither opening their mouths whatsoever, both replaying the events in their minds over and over again.

"We should head back, ANBU probably would of heard us there." Naruto pointed out.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Anko said, doing very little to hide her disappointment.

"Anko, can I stay with you tonight? No perverted stuff or nothing, just, can I hold you?" Naruto asked, trying to cover up the very need he had for her. It was almost primal.

"Sounds good, your otousan won't bitch about it?" Anko asked.

"Nah, he'll be too busy doing Yukani."

Elsewhere, in the middle of lovemaking, a blonde Hokage sneezed on his wife.

AN: What did you think? Lemme know. Sorry if I have any spelling or grammatical errors. All 4 chapters were done betaless.


	5. The Gamble

The Road Less Taken

The Road Less Taken

Chapter 5: The Gamble

AN: Thanks for all of your reviews. Now, this will probably annoy some of you, but the first half of this chapter pretty much wraps everything up. The fic is far from completed but I don't particularly want to write the six months of training the rookie nine do with their senseis. Not even Naruto's, simply put, it's way too troublesome. There will be key flashbacks to what goes down during the six months, but it will be spread throughout the next arc, which starts in the second half of this chapter, the Chuunin Exams. Sorry if it pisses some of you off, but that's just how I want to do it.

_**Mitarashi Anko's Apartment**_

Naruto woke up groggily, eyes opening wide in shock as he say who laid there next to him in his bed. His sensei, the snake-mistress Anko. The girl he'd been fantasizing about since he turned fourteen and happened to hear her lecture at the Nin-academy. Slowly he took her beauty in. Her thin sheets did little to cover up her curves, and Naruto took in a deep breath as he nearly panted from lust like an Inuzuka dog.

He stared into her face, smiling to himself as her lavender bangs hung over her eyes, framing her beautifully. Her skin, slightly tanned, making her even look more exotic than he thought possible.

"Fuck." He groaned, his dick hardening in excitement.

Her arm was draped over his waist, her soft breasts pressed up against his side. Long, toned legs wrapped around him, and he couldn't happen but wonder how he got so lucky. Unable to help, he leaned his head in and pressed his lips to hers, claiming them once again.

"You'd better stop baka…" Anko groaned, her breath panted against the side of his neck.

"I can't help it Anko-chan. I just want to…" She cut him off with a kiss, sliding her lithe form over him, staring into his eyes with her golden ones.

"No more talking… show me." She moaned, claiming his lips again with a gentle kiss.

Unwilling to give in into her dominance, he rolled her over so he'd be on top, rubbing his boxer-clad cock against her slit.

"Naruto-kun." Her arms wrapped around his back, nails digging in deep.

His lips found the smooth nape of her neck, suckling softly, being complete careful not to leave a bruising.

"Harder gaki."

Shaking his head, he continued suckling, sliding his fingers clumsily down to her moist pussy, fumbling slightly until his fingers found her clit. Pressing down softly, he began rubbing it as he continued kissing and sucking her neck.

"Please Naruto…" She growled, her nails digging in hard enough to draw blood.

Smirking against her flesh, he nipped his way to her collarbone, placing feathery light kisses on them. She fought and writhed against him in an attempt to take back dominance.

"Don't you want the foreplay first sensei?" He asked her, fingers deftly pressing against her clit.

"Fuck foreplay, save that for the second time. I'm going to rock your world for your first one."

Naruto nodded and gave into her, letting her back on top.

She reached down underneath her and gripped his dick tightly in her hands and slowly placed the tip against her wet entrance. "You ready baby?"

Naruto nodded his consent and she slowly slid down, inch by inch.

_**6 Months Later**_

"Hey Naru-kun, wake up baby." Anko said groggily, reaching over to her boyfriend and shaking him until Naruto shot up out of his bed.

"Anko…" Naruto stared at her through one sleep ridden eye. He laid back down on the bed and promptly passed out, snoring softly, much to Anko's annoyance.

Fine gaki…we'll see what you think off this then…Anko thought.

She slowly disentangled herself from him and positioned herself between his thighs and lowered her face down to the tip of his dick. "Naruto-kun." She moaned hard, breathing against the tip. There was still no reaction. Grabbing the soft shaft, she opened her mouth and took him in, coating it in saliva.

Naruto stirred.

As he slowly hardened in her mouth, her tongue continued its ministrations as Naruto suddenly shot up off the bed, fully awake.

"Why would you do that, Anko-chan?" Naruto asked.

She sat up quickly. "You weren't getting up Naru-baka." Anko gave him a mock glare and stuck her tongue at him. "And you know today's the first part of the chuunin Exams, eh?"

"Gomen ne, Mitarashi-sensei." Naruto apologized, hands shooting out and gripping Anko's arm tightly. "Though you should know better than to wake up a Namikaze like that, ne?" He growled out, flipping her onto her back and sheathing himself inside of her.

Her cry of passion was loud, eyes closed in rapture as she was silenced by Naruto's tongue sliding into her mouth.

"We're in my otousan's house, you do remember the Yondaime and his bitch of a wife Yukani?" Naruto mumbled against her lips.

"Gomen, ero-gaki."

"You too, ero-sensei." The two continued kissing, the chuunin exams long forgotten in their throes of passion.

Though good moments never last.

"O-nii-san! As Lee-sensei would say you should work on the springtime of youth for the chuunin exams!" Uchiha Kakashi snapped, walking in on the two of them.

"Kaka-baka! Get out, I'm busy." Naruto pleaded to his otouto.

"I wonder what otousama would think if he seen the Honorable Naruto in bed with a jounin?" Kakashi smirked.

"Kashi-kun, you wouldn't do that would you?" Anko pouted, giving him her patented Puppy Eyes.

"That only works if I find you attractive, Anko-obaa-chan!" Kakashi exclaimed, a happy glee in his face. "And sadly to say, I'm sure you ran out of springtime of youth a decade or so ago, ne obaa-chan?"

A vein began throbbing on Anko's forehead as she stood up, wrapping herself up in Naruto's sheets for modesty. "What did you call me pipsqueak!?" Anko snarled, scanning the room for a kunai.

Seeing her for the last couple months let Kakashi know exactly what she was looking for in the second. He pulled a kunai and began twirling it around his index finger. "Looking for this o-baa-chan?"

Naruto covered his face in his hands. He knew his otouto was as much of a prankster, if not more than he was.

"Or were you looking for these, ne?" Kakashi pulled something out of his back pocket, it was Anko's panties. "They stink baa-chan, you must have been training hard, there must be a spark of springtime youth in you left!"

At that moment Anko snapped, clothes or no clothes, she would murder the little fucker.

Kakashi chose that exact moment to shunshin himself away to safety.

"Get up gaki, we're training!" Anko spat at Naruto, who had been mainly quite, mouth covered up so he wouldn't laugh.

"Don't take it out me, Mitarashi-sensei. He called you a stinky obaa-chan, not me!" Naruto bursted out laughing.

Anko did not look amused.

"Shut up!" Anko snapped, bopping Naruto on the head, and getting dressed. Naruto quickly dressed himself as well, choosing the attire that Anko bought for him, rather than the black and orange jumpsuit he preferred, although he understood her reasoning behind it. They were shinobi, and stealth and deception was a must for them.

His attire was a black mask, identical to Kakashi's that covered the lower part of his face. After putting on the mask, he put on a black, long sleeved shirt that was so tight it hugged his lean body. Then, he grabbed a pair of gray cargo pants and a black kunai holster, with several kunai in there, some with explosive tags as well as a few shuriken.

After lacing his black combat boots, he wrapped his hitai-ate, and wrapped the black cloth around his neck and tying it.

Anko suppressed a moan, as she stared at her apprentice in front of her. Naruto hadn't gone on many missions, thanks to the Hokage, but he had already gotten a few kills under his belt. Hokage-sama pretty much decided that rather than take Naruto on missions, it would be better to keep him in the village training for the chuunin exams.

He had all but demanded that Naruto not fail the chuunin exams, apparently his son was some sort of trophy that he'd flash around after years of neglect.

For the last six months, Naruto had picked up a lot of things, and there would be nothing to stop him at the chuunin exams. Especially now that the Hokage promised his son he'd teach him the Hiriashin no Jutsu if he made chuunin this time around.

Naruto didn't have a wide variety of jutsus to choose from, but the ones he did know where powerhouses. After a successful first mission, the Hokage taught Naruto the Rasengan and the beginning of nature manipulation to be able to do what he himself couldn't.

Naruto using thousands of kage bunshins in his six months of training had easily learned the Rasengan and already combined two nature elements into it, much to the Hokage's surprise.

He himself had be using the Rasengan for twenty years and still hadn't achieved it until Naruto pointed out that if he made a kage bunshin to imbue the Rasengan with nature manipulation while the user himself formed the Rasengan, it'd be a hell of a lot easier than doing by himself.

Thanks to Kage Bunshins, Naruto could use the Fuuton: Rasengan, a devastating attack that tore the enemy from the inside, as well as Katon: Rasengan which was hot enough to burn and combust an opponent with enough chakra.

Naruto also picked up the Kuchiyose no Jutsu after signing the toad contract. Had Jiraiya attempted this back when Naruto was twelve or thirteen like chibi Kakashi, it probably would have been impossible to learn everything he had in the last couple of months. But with three years at the academy and training with an avenger of an Uchiha, as well as a godfather Sannin, the impossible became possible.

The last month of training had been spent on creating his own punishing version of taijutsu that he and the Kyuubi had thought of. Though both jailor and the emprisoned Kyuubi hated each other passionately, both knew that they had some sort of symbiotic relationship where if Naruto died, then so did the Kyuubi.

Since Tsunade, the Legendary Sucker refused to teach Naruto her bone crunching version of taijutsu and he hadn't wanted to pick up the Hidden Snake Hand from Anko, he developed one that was more fitting to his style. Seeing as Naruto was a brawler, ground and pound type of shinobi, he combined his nature manipulation with taijutsu.

The last month he had relentless trained on sending fire manipulation to his fists and feet to deliver a punishing blow, with not only physical strength but with the punishing side effect of burning an opponent with every blow.

Naruto was far from beating the Yondaime Namikaze Minato, but he was no slouch. He was nearly on par with Uchiha Sasuke. But both had their strengths and differences. Naruto was a ninjutsu powerhouse, above average with his style of taijutsu, though he had a non-existent talent for Genjutsu. He could cancel out most Genjutsu, but performing them was entirely out of his league. Sasuke on the other hand was great at both ninjutsu and genjutsu with the Sharingan, but taijutsu, he was average.

Sasuke himself had trained hard for the last six months. He had gone on more missions than Naruto, since his otousan wasn't around babying him, but he had indeed gotten stronger, though he never lost his overwhelming quench to kill Itachi, it didn't dominate his personal life with friends.

Today was not only the day of the chuunin exams, but they'd also find out who else they were teamed with to form their three man squad. The nine rookie genin were asked to meet with the Yondaime at ten o'clock in the morning. Meaning Naruto had two hours left before he had to meet at Hokage Tower.

"Hey Anko, I'm going to go meet up with Sarutobi-jiji and then I'll see you at Hokage Tower." He stated calmly, pulling out a pack of cigarettes out of his drawer as well as a lighter, and lit one up, much to Anko's dismay.

"Fine, you ever plan on quitting that nasty habit?" Anko asked.

"What smoking or screwing you?" Naruto asked, bolting from the room as an enrage Anko chased him out of the house.

She grinned, she loved the gaki and he knew it.

_**Outside Sandaime Sarutobi's House**_

"Hey Sarutobi-jiji!" Naruto walked up to the retired Hokage who was sitting on a rocking chair, pulling deeply on his pipe.

"Naruto-kun! How do you do, I haven't seen you in a bit, you didn't forget about your Grandpa Sarutobi, ne?" Sarutobi stood up and hugged the blonde.

"Gomen ne jij! I've been busy with training for the chuunin exams and haven't had much time for things. Hey watch gramps, you almost knocked over my cigarette." Naruto complained, relighting his cigarette since Sarutobi knocked over the cherry.

"You ready for the chuunin exams, Naruto-kun?"

"Of course obasan, I'm gonna be the future Godaime, dattebayo!" Naruto exclaimed passionately.

"Of course! Would you like some breakfast eh Godaime-dono?" Sarutobi asked smirking at his adopted grandchild. "Konohamaru's inside." Sarutobi added.

Naruto nodded and followed him inside.

Konohamaru, an eleven year old with huge hopes to become Hokage like his grandfather was like an otouto to Naruto. He and Kakashi trained constantly, both looking up to Naruto as an example of strength, and kindness, two requisites to become a good Hokage. Which is why they believed that Orochimaru and Danzo-teme never quite made the cut.

"Naruto-niisan!" Konohamaru exclaimed, rushing to greet the older chuunin hopeful. Naruto ruffled the kids hair and sat at the table, ready to dig in to some breakfast.

_**Hokage Tower**_

"Naruto's not gonna like this." Minato said, lighting up a cigarette. He was as stressed as could be, and Uchiha Yukani was not making it better.

"So what! Sometimes you have to make sacrifices as Hokage!" Yukani snapped at her husband.

"But he's not the fucking Hokage, not yet anyways. He shouldn't have to make sacrifices or life altering decisions just because I wish it so. I'll just have to tell the Kazekage he simply can't do that right now. He's still a fucking teenager, dammit!" Minato snarled, nearly crushing his cigarette in anger.

He stood up, walking over to his cabinet and found an unopened bottle of sake, he didn't bother grabbing glasses.

"This is the best course of action if you want to maintain good ties with Sunagakure. Are you going to throw it away because your son is having some kind of fucking fling with that no good harlot Anko?" Yukani spat at him. "For fuck's sake, she's Orochimaru's apprentice, what kind of future did you picture with her and Naruto? She's no good for him, at least with this, we can maintain good relations with Suna!"

"I understand, but to force him to marry the Kazekage's daughter? Not to mention the recovering killing addict that is her jinchiruuki brother Gaara? What kind of stable family can they offer us? And you want me to jeopardize my son's future and happiness, you helped me raise the kid, how can you be such a bitch and throw away his happiness and dreams as if they were insignificant." Minato growled out.

"With all due respect Hokage-_sama_, what are the duties of the shinobi?" Yukani asked snidely.

"To obey the Hokage and do whatever necessary to ensure the safety of the village." He retorted angrily.

"And what would you define a marriage ensuring great political and military relations between two of the five great nations?"

"You're asking me to become an even worse father than I already am! Not only did I allow the Kyuubi to get sealed into Naruto and neglect him for a majority of his life, thanks to you, now you want me to force my hand and make him marry Temari, daughter of the Yondaime Kazekage? It is madness, how much more do you want me to sacrifice of Naruto, was it not enough that he feels I love Kakashi more than him, or that half the fucking village hates him for being the Kyuubi's container?" Minato snapped, dragging deep on his cigarette.

"You made the same sacrifice when you married me, Mina-kun! You think I don't know that you still love her? This marriage in itself was beneficial to the village, as well as Naruto, so you allowed it, why can you not ask the same of your son?"

"Because I'm not happy with this marriage, so why would I condemn my son to a possible similar fate?"

Apparently the news shocked Yukani. "You're not happy with this marriage?" She asked, tears beginning to well up in her eyes. "I loved you for years now and you tell me you're not happy? Do you not love me, Namikaze Minato?" Yukani asked, tears flowing from her eyes freely.

"I try Yukani-chan. But you are not the best wife a man could ask for, let alone a grieving Hokage? You constantly berate my decisions as well as my son, you called Kushina trash simply because she was not of a clan or political importance. She was the love of my life and you degrade her as insignificant trash. I want to love you, but instead of making me love you, you leave me confused. I still love Kushina, and yet I feel something for you. If you could be more like…" Minato was cut off by an angry Yukani.

"Be more like her? Don't you get it, I'm not her, I am my mother's daughter, and now your wife. Maybe I am stuck up, snobby and arrogant, but that is my childhood, we Uchihas are arrogant, what else did you expect when we married, some humble ninja like Uzumaki Kushina?" Wiping her tears, she grabbed his sake bottle and chugged a decent bit.

"Then you of all people should know how hard it is to be married to one woman and love another!"

"For fuck's sake Minato, Kushina is dead, get over it. Anko's alive and healthy, all you have to do is convince her to leave Naruto's bed and convince your son to marry Temari?"

Seeing as she did have a point, Minato gave in, summoning Gekko Hayate, his assistant in. Hayate stood in attention in front of the Hokage.

"Yes Yondaime-sama?"

"Find me Mitarashi Anko." Minato ordered, pulling out another cigarette. Things would not be pretty.

Minutes later a cheerful Anko strode into the Hokage's office.

"You wanted to see me Hokage-sama?" Anko asked.

"Yes I did. It has to do with the relationship between you and my son Naruto." Minato began calmly, and Anko's cheeriness vanished replaced a look of indifference.

"You mean our relationship as sensei-student, Hokage-sama?" Anko asked softly.

"You know what relationship I speak of Anko-san. I am not senile, nor dumb and blind." Minato said shortly, losing his patience as he wanted to finish this as fast as possible before having to deal with his super hormonal son.

"I don't know what you speak of." Anko said defensively, her hand clenching up in anger.

"You and my son have been having relations of the sexual kind for the last six months. It has to stop Anko."

"Why?" Anko asked impudently.

"Are you question me, is it not I who is Hokage, Anko?" Minato snarled, standing up.

"Yes, I am. I don't see why me and Naruto have to stop when our personal relationship has not affected our missions, but rather strengthened them." Anko bit back the anger that threatened to surface.

"Relations of that nature are forbidden Anko. He is a mere genin and you are a jounin, had he been chuunin when this started it would be different." Minato sighed.

"If you are not dumb nor senile and you've not said anything for the last couple of months, why now?"

"He will be engaged to Temari of the sand, the Kazekage's daughter." He admitted reluctantly.

"Does he know of this arranged marriage?" Anko asked.

Minato shook his head.

"Fuck, you really are a great father." Anko said sarcastically. "I should have Naruto make you a fucking mug."

"Remember your place Jonin!" Minato's eyes flared. He had being talked down to. Years of being a Hokage had hardened his heart to the individual ninja of Konoha, instead caring more about the overall village. He had changed much from the young Yellow Flash he once was.

"Try remembering yours, Hokage-sama." Anko said evenly, walking out on the Hokage without his dismissal.

Anko strode over to Sarutobi's house where she knew Naruto would be at. Little did she know that Naruto had heard the whole thing. Naruto, the biggest prankster had used an advanced Henge to become Gekko Hayate and hung around to see what his father did for a living. He had heard everything from Yukani's conversation to the one Minato had with Anko.

Dropping the Henge, Naruto strode into the Hokage's office.

"Naruto, we have to talk." Minato spoke as soon as Naruto entered the door.

"You lost your motherfucking mind if you think I'm gonna marry Temari or whatever the fuck's her name." Naruto growled out.

Minato's eyes twitched. "What did you say?" He asked, standing up angrily from his seat and walking over to his son.

"I said you lost your motherfucking mind if you think I'll leave Anko to marry some ugly desert bitch! I could care less if she's the fucking Kazekage's daughter." Naruto spat at him, silently focusing his chakra for the inevitable fight that would occur between father and son.

"You're gonna marry her alright! There's no choice, I as your otousama am telling you that you'll marry her. Better yet I'm telling you as your Hokage, is it not your duty to follow the requests of your Hokage?" Minato demanded, grabbing Naruto by his throat and slamming him against the wall.

Twin pairs of electric blue eyes stared at each other.

Suddenly a burning fist crashed against the Hokage's face, searing the surface skin leaving a welt as he fell backwards from the blow.

"I am not your bitch, nor your hooker for you to be pimping me out to whatever Kage's ass you want to kiss." Naruto snarled. "I'm your fucking son, the one you neglected for sixteen fucking years and now you want to help you suck the Kazekage's dick by marrying his daughter? Go fuck yourself, ne."

The Yondaime vanished appeared in front of Naruto and slamming his elbow into Naruto's jaw.

"Watch your tongue, you brat." Minato yelled, grabbing Naruto and lifting him up in the air by sheer strength.

"If you continue to disrespect me I will charge you for treason."

Before Naruto could retort, the other rookie eight entered the Hokage's office to find Minato choking their fellow genin.

Minato was genuinely surprised until he saw the time and Naruto took the opportunity to land another fiery blow to the Yondaime's stomach pushing him backwards. "Come on Hokage-_teme._ Show the rest of the genin what kind of father you fucking are, ne?"

Everyone but Sasuke were shocked by his sheer audacity by not only striking the Hokage, but calling him a _teme_ as well.

"You'll never become Hokage if you keep this up." Minato spoke with a note of finality, to show that the conversation was over.

"That's good, I wouldn't want to become a Hokage if it means being anything like you." Naruto egged him on.

Minato stared at the other rookie genin. "Are you ready for the chuunin exams, this is your chance to back out. If you do not feel comfortable taking the exams, please say so now." Minato ordered.

Naruto raised his hand.

Minato shoot him a glare. "Yes Naruto?"

"Hokage-sama, I personally do not feel comfortable taking this exam and would like to back out now." Naruto asked.

"Request denied. Shut up Naruto!" He said coldly. When no one else commented, he continued, "Team Seven will consist of Namikaze Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, and Haruno Sakura, with Sasuke being the team leader." He waited for Naruto's protest, but found none. "Team eight will consist of Hyuuga Hinata, Aburame Shino, and Inuzuka Kiba with Shino as team leader. Team nine will consist of Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Choji, and Nara Shikamaru, with Shikamaru as team leader."

_This will be so troublesome… Shikamaru thought as he wished he was laid out staring at the skies._

"Chuunin exams are ways for Hokage to show off the genin to neighboring nations as intimidation factors as well as provide ways to advance. Don't embarrass Konoha. Now the nine of you head over village center where the written portion is held as well as registration."

The nine rookie genin left and as soon as they did, Minato broke down in tears.

AN: End of Chapter. Many will say Minato's OOC as well as Naruto, but honestly who know's what in character would be in alternate universes. I think it's left up to the author on how some characters will act. For example, Minato's just a shell of a man, just waiting to die so he can be reunited with Kushina and has been left so bitter that for Naruto, it's indistinguishable between Minato his father, and Minato the Hokage. Naruto on the other hand doesn't know how bad Minato's grieving and is too pigheaded to look past his own suffering, never really understanding why Minato's done the things he had done. Not to mention that Naruto only wants to become Hokage so he can be better than his father and rub it in the villagers face that he was somebody other than the Yondaime's shadow.

Yukani on the other hand has always been in love with Minato and finally got to marry him, only to find a shell of the man she fell in love with, so it's left her bitter and uncaring of Naruto, the only reminder of the woman that Minato still loves over her. Sasuke's OOCness derives from the fact that in this fic, Itachi only kills his father rather than the whole Uchiha clan. In the manga, Sasuke's hate derived from years of loneliness and being robbed of his family, while in this one, he still has his mother and the rest of the Uchiha clan so his hate isn't all consuming. Hope this explains some to y'all.

ANPt 2: I posted this chapter last night at 3:00am and from then and now on two different sites I've only gotten 1 review but 40 different people adding the story to the favorite stories and authories portion, which means you must of had to have clicked on the submit review button but didn't have the decency to leave a review. 40 people and 1 review. Thank you thedarkeststar for that. I'm gonna post up another chapter in a week or two and if I get one review again and the cycle continues, don't expect the fic to be updated for two or three months.


	6. First Exam

The Road Less Taken

The Road Less Taken

Chapter Six: First Exam

Disclaimer: I don't Naruto. Period.

AN: Sorry I haven't written in a bit, I've been sick with a fever and bronchitis so it's delayed my writing for a bit.

"Naruto, you shouldn't talk like that to the Hokage." Sakura admonished him, glaring at him. The Rookie nine had just separated into there three man cells and started heading towards the building where the first exam would be held as well as registration. Sakura couldn't even hold it in for a few minutes before rambling about disrespectful genin and such.

"Haruno-san, when and only when I want your opinion, then give it to me, until then please wait on bated breath cause it'll never happen, hint, hint. I am Namikaze Naruto and I don't take opinions from backseat, psychotic fangirl shinobis." His cruel tone cut into Sakura deeply.

Before Naruto could continue, Sasuke's hand slapped against his chest. "Enough Naruto-kun. In this Chuunin exams we're supposed to show how we can work together as a team because once we're done with our apprenticeship, this is the team we'll be on and it'd be smart to be able to work together on the actual battlefield." Slowly he turned to Sakura, "And you, please don't presume to know what type of relationship Naruto and his father have."

"All I'm saying Sasuke-kun is that his father is the Hokage!" Sakura snapped, turning her emerald eyes to Naruto and glaring at him.

Both males ignored her and continued onwards to the registration building.

"Wait up Sasuke-kun." Sakura yelled, sprinting to catch up to them.

"Don't you ever get tired to her and her fangirl ways? Why'd she have to be on our team, all she'll do is hold us back." Naruto said cruelly, knowing full well that Sakura was behind them and listening intently.

"Naruto-san!" Sakura growled out, not bothering to belay the anger that was burning underneath her.

As Naruto turned around, he caught a mouthful of kunoichi fist as Sakura's fist slammed into face, sending him flying backwards for a couple of yards. Face quickly bruising, he stood up to quickly avoid another chakra enhanced punch. As he moved though, her leg whipped out and caught him in the side, and he screamed as ribs broke under her power.

"You will do better off if you don't estimate me, Naruto-san." She said smugly, smirking over his hurt body.

Face flaming red from embarrassment, he quickly kicked himself to his feet and charged at her, avoiding another blow that surely would of demolished his face, spinning around her to charge up flames in both fists.

Sakura eyed the flames warily and used her perfect chakra control to ready herself for another destructive punch.

"Haruno!" Naruto sprinted towards her, vanishing from her sight, and appeared once again, fist about to crash into her jaw, when his fist was caught by Sasuke.

Naruto's eyes swiveled to the team leader.

"We're gonna be late if you two keep bullshitting." He stated noncommittally.

Naruto sighed, and relented.

"I've been trained by Tsunade-sama these last six months, I'd be careful of what you say." Sakura spoke, her voice not wavering nor faulting, though tears did come out at the name of her mentor.

Rather than let himself be bothered by her delusions of grandeur, the future Hokage continued walking, following Sasuke stealthily to the village center to register for the Chuunin exams. Ignoring some of the glares from the more ignorant people in Konoha (mainly civilians), the three man cell registered their names and continued onward towards the first stage of the exams.

They were directed to the third floor of the building, where outside the door about seventy five chuunin hopefuls were waiting for the doors to open. Naruto recognized nine of the Konoha genin that were entering. He saw Team 11, a graduating team from the previous year. It was composed of Hyuuga Neji, Rock Lee, and Toriyama TenTen. Two taijutsu specialists as well as a weapons expert.

Naruto knew Rock Lee quite well, the two saw each other often when training each other vigorously in the training fields and began a budding friendship with each other. Though Naruto viewed Lee as eccentric and a bit quirky, he still considered him a friend despite his not so manly talks of 'springtime of youth'. The hung out after training sometimes, and not to mention that Naruto had asked Lee to help train his brother in taijutsu.

Tenten, to be frank, he didn't think of Tenten. To Naruto, she was nice, but a sidekick when compared to Lee and Neji.

He didn't say as much because he feared a rain of kunai hitting the part on his body that he loved the most.

Aburame Shino's team was there as well. Shino was pretty much introverted, and like spending time with his bugs than with actual humans. Kiba was pretty cool though, he and Naruto had always had some sort of male camaraderie when going through the ninja academy and both teens respected each other highly. Though he couldn't say to much about Hinata, she didn't really talk to him, from what Kiba told him, she didn't really like Naruto at all whatsoever.

Not that Naruto cared of course.

There weren't to many people that Naruto held in high esteem and she wasn't one of them. Hell he pretty much hated all the Konoha kunoichi anyway, with the exception of Anko. It all pretty much derived from his hate of Uchiha Yukani, she had berated him a lot when he had been younger, always telling him he'd never amount to a speck of greatness unlike his father the Yondaime.

That his otouto Kakashi should have been the Yondaime's only son and that he'd been better off buried with his mother Kushina.

Growing up with a kunoichi like that for a stepmother had brutalized Naruto's vision and opinion on kunoichi.

Choji, Ino, and Shikamaru were off to the side, just checking out the competition. The lazy shougi player eyed Naruto and Sasuke warily, knowing of their strengths. It's not like Naruto and Sasuke didn't really keep quite about how strong they were. Ino was staring at a mirror wondering how good she looked right now, before walking over to Sasuke and enveloping him in a hug.

"How troublesome…" Shikamaru said, and Chouji had to agree.

Sasuke grimaced and lightly pushed Ino off of him. "This is no time for this Ino-pig." Sakura pointed out in jealousy.

"Shut it billboard brow!" Ino yelled, cheeks tinted red from embarrassment.

The four three man cells stepped into the room, followed by the other sixty some odd nin. Knowing that Temari of the Sand would be there, Naruto scanned the room, azure eyes passing through everybody until he laid eyes on a single three man cell from the sand. He saw a man in a black robe with purple face paint and armed with some bandaged thing strapped to his back. Next his eyes laid on a teen with bright red hair, and a kanji tattooed on his forehead meaning 'love'. Naruto nodded the odd gourd on his back and wondering oddly its purpose.

Lastly he saw _**her**_**, **woman his father wanted him to marry.

She was undeniably beautiful. Blonde hair, similar in color like Naruto's tied back in a single spiked ponytail, a long, blonde block hanging over her eye, covering some of her forehead protector. Blue green eyes stared back at him, almond shaped in appeareance.

A small frown of discontent marred her features as she noticed his ogling over her, especially when his gaze lowered down to her firm, supple breasts, covered over by a metal plate and a plain, tight white blouse. Long, silky legs covered by tight, black spandex that reached most of her thigh, and over that was a navy blue skirt.

Naruto's gazed continued from her legs to her perfect ankles, then down to her feet, covered by black, ninja sandals.

"What are you staring at?" She demanded.

"Nothing important." Naruto said coolly, before turning and walking up to his group where he sat down.

Feeling bad that he had ogled Temari, he remembered of his first kill with Anko.

_Flashback_

_Naruto weaved in between the Kiri nin, slashing viciously at anything that came his way. He didn't want to kill anybody, so each kunai slash was deliberate, aimed to maim rather than kill._

"_Water Style: Water Dragon Missle." A Kiri jounin had bellowed, and Naruto barely avoided the incoming missle. Most of the nin were already downed, several killed at Anko's vicious, uncaring hands. _

_All that was left between Naruto and a passed mission was one Kiri jounin who stood proudly, interfering Naruto from reaching Fire Country's borders._

_He held his right hand out, charging chakra to his right hand, using the center of his hand as a focal point for his next attack. Seconds afterwards a small blue orb formed into the palm of his hand, chakra spinning around wildly, illuminating Naruto's face in the eve of midnight._

"_Water Style: Water Dragon Missle!" The jounin yelled once more, shooting off another dragon with the last of his chakra._

_Naruto charged, a spinning ball of destruction still swirling in his hand as he sprinted into the incoming attack._

"_Rasengan!" Naruto yelled, as both jutsu's clashed, water spraying both opponents as Naruto pushed forward, dumping more chakra into his hand, the Rasengan tearing through the water dragon until it found it's maker, digging into his chest, unstable chakra tearing through the flesh, spraying the air with flesh, blood, and bone and suddenly the jounin was flying backwards into a tree, a glazed look upon his face._

_Naruto had made his first kill._

_End Flashback_

Naruto had cried for a bit while Anko held him in her tight embrace. He had vomited all over the place, nausea triggered by the stench of charred flesh and spilt blood. He had killed more since then and it didn't bother him so much. He had chosen to be a shinobi like his father and those before him, it had been his choice.

Not that he regretted it, but he had wished his first couple kills would have been less bloody.

They might of, had he been a lot stealthier but he had been forced to use brute force to tear the ranks of the enemy nin.

The seventy five chuunin candidates sat in the allotted chairs, waiting for the first proctor to show up. In their nervousness, they began to brag amongst each other about their skills and argued with the genin of other villages about who'd win it all.

"SILENCE!" and in walked a jounin, about six feet tall, with a green jounin flak jacket, and black cargo pants covered by a black trenchcoat.

Immediately, all the genin promptly shut the fuck up.

"I am Morino Ibiki, the first proctor for the Chuunin Exams. This exam will eliminate over half of you. Rule number one, I don't want to repeat myself, so you cannot ask any questions or you will be eliminated as well as your team. I see we have 25 three man cells. One from Suna, four from Oto, seven from Konoha, five from Kiri, four from Kusa and four from Kumo.

"While the first part of the exam will sound easy enough, trust me it won't be. I will ask each of you two questions each, and those questions will decide whether you move on to the second part of the exam."

This should be relatively easy… Naruto thought.

"This will not be easy, and there are no second chances. Okay I'm going to start calling you individually by alphabetical order, and please remember, should one of your teammates get the question wrong, the whole team fails. Okay Aburame Shino." Ibiki called out and the quiet bug user stood to his feet and followed the jounin out another to another door.

Sasuke and Naruto were talking about how easy it would be when the red-headed Suna genin with the weird gourd on his back stepped up to them. "I am Gaara of the Sand, are you Uchiha Sasuke and Namikaze Naruto?" He spoke to them, his voice sounding like he was teetering on the edge of a growl.

"Yeah. Why do you ask?" Sasuke spoke.

"You two are supposed to be the strongest rookies of Leaf genin. I wish to test my strength against you both here at the Chuunin Exams. I would like to see Namikaze if you are truly worthy of a marriage with my sister Temari." Gaara continued.

Sasuke smirked at the recognition by the Suna nin.

Naruto did not.

"If you want a fight, then a fight you shall get. But like I told my father the Hokage, I'm not interested in this arranged marriage with your neesan Temari." Naruto spoke evenly.

"Is my sister not good enough for the great Namikaze Naruto?" Gaara demanded, his voice teetering again. He corkscrew to his gourd dissolved and sand began to come out. Naruto looked at him, the killer intent the teen was putting out was enough to freak out some of the other genin.

"It isn't a question about whether she's good enough Suna nin. I'm merely not interested in a fixed marriage, I respect myself enough not to get married to your neesan just so our dads can kiss each other's asses. Why the fuck would peace even be decided on a single marriage anyway? I'm not interested in that stuff, I just want to live and be a better Hokage than my father ever was!" Naruto retorted hotly.

"So you wouldn't ensure the peace to continue by taking my sister's hand in marriage?" Gaara asked, the sand swirling around him in anger now.

Naruto shook his head.

"I already have a significant other, I'm not interested." Naruto responded.

"Didn't seem that way earlier." A silky voice cut into his ear and the Kazekage's daughter walked over to him. "Why would you even want to turn down the daughter of a Kazekage over some jounin harlot?"

"Don't ever fucking talk about her like that again!" Naruto shot up out of his seat, leaking killer intent, spewing around the room in an ugly wave.

"I didn't mean to offend Naruto-sama, just merely asking a question." Temari spoke huskily.

"Well don't talk… at all!" He snapped, blazing azure eyes staring into Temari's blue green ones.

"I'll do whatever it takes to convince you Naruto-sama. How far will your jounin go for you?"

Sasuke stared at the girl. She was pushing Naruto's buttons and knew it, then continued doing it. It took a firm pair of… breasticles to do that.

Did I just say breasticles in my head? Sasuke thought.

"She loves me. Anko-chan loves me, and there isn't anything she wouldn't do to be with me."

"Quiet!" Ibiki returned with Aburame Shino, who unless Naruto was mistaken, was actually sweating. Was Ibiki that bad?

The Suna nin returned to their seats, and Ibiki continued the process, interrogating the genin one by one and Naruto being one of the last to be interrogated was terrified of Ibiki. Most of the genin that returned were so frail and shaken when they returned to the room. Well, except Gaara, that teme returned just as expressionless as when he originally left with Ibiki.

Even the sexy seductress that was Temari came back a withered rose, making Naruto doubt himself some more. What if he broke like them as well?

Haruno Sakura had come back and thrown up in a trash can and sat next to Sasuke, refusing to talk to anyone.

"Uchiha Sasuke." Ibiki returned with another young genin who looked absolutely petrified.

"Ubaki Itani, you couldn't handle the question so you and your team have been disqualified." The leaf nin didn't even care that he was being disqualified, he looked so scared like he just wanted to get the fuck out of the room intact.

"Later dobe." Sasuke said and gave Naruto a short nod before heading down to meet Ibiki.

Minutes later Sasuke returned, a stony glare on his face, his two tomoed Sharingan on full blast. There were tears in Sasuke's eyes, nearly invisible, but there they were silently sliding down his blood red eyes and hiding from view under his chin.

"Namikaze Naruto." Ibiki called out, and Naruto stood up to his feet shakily. He had to pass no matter what lied ahead with Ibiki. He began to walk silently to Ibiki, ignoring Sasuske's teary glance. He needed to be strong for what lied ahead, and a teary Sasuke wouldn't do him any good.

"Follow me." Ibiki commanded and Naruto complied. The two stepped out of the other exit and into an interrogation room.

"Sit." Ibiki demanded, nodding over to a set of plain chairs where Naruto once again did as was asked and casually plumped down and averted the sharp gaze of the jounin.

"Namikaze Naruto, son of the Yondaime Hokage, ne?"

"Hai." Naruto replied, with as much bravado as he could muster. The room was dim litted, with the only light being a small halogen bulb that swayed back and forth dramatically.

"As a chuunin of Konoha, sometimes you will have to take risks, risks that no shinobi's want to make. Sometimes these decisions will come at a large cost Naruto. Are you prepared to make such decisions?"

"Hai."

"Here's question number one, you are on a mission in Iwagakure to deliver papers that would warrant a peace treaty between both nations and along the way your team is attacked by Kumo nins. One of your subordinates is poisoned with only hours to live. Do you follow through with the mission and spare Konoha from another war or save your comrade?" Ibiki asked.

Naruto was silent for a few seconds. This was a hard one.

"Say that comrade was Uchiha Sasuke, your best friend. What would you do?" Ibiki asked.

Naruto might regret what he would say later, but at the time it didn't matter. He knew what he would do.

"Honestly, I'd save Sasuke rather than continue the mission." Naruto spoke.

"But what about sparing the village from war!" Ibiki snapped, suddenly running up into Naruto's face. "Would you condemn men to die to save your one friend?"

"With all due respect, the village only as strong as it's weakest member. A decent Hokage once told me, those that don't follow the rules are trash, but those that abandon their comrades to follow such rules are even worse than trash. There will always be time to make a peace treaty, but there are only hours to save Sasuke's life in this case. That is my decision and I'm sticking to it, believe it!" Naruto spoke with more authority now.

He didn't care if doing such a thing in real life caused him to never become Hokage. He knew that despite his cocky bravado, he wouldn't stop until he'd save a comrade, even if it meant his own death.

"Good answer kid. Here's the final part of the first exam. Over on the other side of the room is Mitarashi Anko being raped by numerous amounts of enemy nin. If you don't be quiet and hide your emotions they will be alerted of your presence and kill her, if you can hide your emotions, they will leave her to die and be gone, where you can save her then. What is your choice Namikaze?"

The halogen bulb got brighter and suddenly he saw her, the woman he loved in a corner, face bloody and bruised as two Kirin in took turns thrusting deep inside her. While one penetrated her, the other would abuse her physically, until by the end of it, she was nothing more than a bloody lump of flesh.

Naruto clenched his teeth in an attempt to keep quiet, even though tears were swelling up in his eyes, threatening to slide down. A sob caught in his throat wanted to pop out as well, but Naruto swallowed it down.

And for what seemed like an hour, Naruto had to watch as Anko-chan was raped repeatedly over and over again. At first Naruto didn't notice, but a small amount of red chakra started to leak out.

_Anko-chan…Naruto thought._

Ibiki noticed the red chakra and chose that moment to dispel the genjutsu. "Congratulations Naruto, you pass the first exam."

The genjutsu vanished before Naruto eyes and he released the sob that had almost come out. The red foam of chakra that had been threatening to burst dissipated, leaving behind a sobbing Naruto. The genjutsu began to flash before his eyes and he turned to the side and threw up everything he had eaten with the Sandaime that morning.

"Why would you cast a genjutsu like that?" Naruto demanded, glaring at Ibiki through slitted eyes.

"The first part of the exam was to test your morale as a Chuunin selectee. You will have to make hard decisions that you might not want to make, so we tested you to see if you were good enough morale wise to belong to the Konoha's chuunin group. The second part of your exam was to test how good you could bottle your emotions as per the Ninja rule number twenty five. A shinobi does not show emotions.

"We aren't emotionless tools like some choose to believe, but there are times where we cannot afford to let our emotions seep through because it would endanger a mission. Yes, you might think that each exam are contradictory to what lesson where supposed to be learn, but like I said in the beginning, Anko was never in mortal danger to begin with, had you shown emotion, it would of led to her untimely death, but by you keeping quiet, it did the exact opposite, Anko lived rather than die." Ibiki explained.

Naruto nodded, showing that he understood.

"It is time to head back to your team and get ready for the second exam."

"Hai." Naruto replied, standing up shakily. The jounin and genin headed back to the room.

"You are not to talk about what happened until everyone was tested or you'll be disqualified."

Naruto nodded and headed into the room, avoiding most of the looks, some sympathetic that were sent his way. He headed up the small set of stairs and sat down next to Sasuke, who looked straight ahead, lost in thought.

Minutes later, everybody had been tested and still no one wanted to talk about their genjutsu experience, but it didn't matter a loud crash through one of the side window and in bursted in Mitarashi Anko, a purple banner hung behind her.

It read: Mitarashi Anko, #1 Single Kunoichi in Konoha.

"I'm Anko as you now know. Your proctor for the second exam, you are too meet tomorrow at Training Field 44 at seven o'clock sharp, until then!" She exclaimed and quickly shunshined away from their.

Naruto winced, she hadn't even shot a look his way.

Sasuke noticed the crestfallen look on Naruto's face and put his hand on his shoulder for comfort.

_That bitch…_ _Sasuke thought._

Without speaking, Naruto stood up and just headed onwards, tears flowing freely.

In the back of the room, a sand kunoichi smirked.

Naruto ran as fast as he could to the Hokage's tower, Sasuke trailing not to far behind him. Red chakra began pouring to his feet, quickening his pace as he ran up the tower and jumped into the window where his father the Yondaime stood there with the Kazekage.

"I fucking hate you!" Naruto spat at him, his eyes turning blood red, forming slits.

The Yondaime figured as much at what was going on.

Anko had done the honorable thing and broken his heart in one clean slice. "Calm down Naruto." Minato said trying to calm his son down.

"Burn in hell Yondaime, you and the Kazekage." Naruto snapped, turning his blood red eyes to the ruler of Sunagakure.

"Perhaps at this time it would not be favorable for an unstable jinchiruuki to marry my daughter Temari." The Yondaime Kazekage spoke.

Minato shot a cold glare to Naruto.

"Kazekage-dono, please understand that my son just had his heart broken because of this arranged wedding. His behavior is understandable, ne? There are plenty of women from other villages he could marry, I wish for a stable alliance with Sunagakure, but if you call my son unstable or a jinchiruuki again, I might be forced to hand him over to a different village." Minato growled out.

"What am I, a piece of fucking steak? I will marry the girl I choose, nothing less will be acceptable to me."

"Have a seat, Namikaze." The Kazekage asked.

"Do not presume to order me in my own village, ne." Naruto spat, his eyes shimmering from red to azure once more.

"It is not an order, merely a pleasantry, please do not take offense." The Kazekage said.

Naruto sat down.

"I wish for a good alliance with Konoha, Naruto. If we stay allied, we can both protect each other from the enemies that will be turning up soon. As you know from your godfather Jiraiya, there is an organization known as the Akatsuki that are here to collect the bijuus in special people like you and my son Gaara, rip them out of you and kill you in the process."

"Why?" Naruto asked.

The Yondaime Hokage spoke this time. "They're going to use the chakra from the beast to create a jutsu that destroys all the nations. Afterwards they're going to imbue themselves with each bijuu and become the Kages of the future. By strengthening our alliance with Suna, we can hopefully prevent the collection of the Shukaku which is in Gaara, as well as the Kyuubi that's in you Naruto."

"How do you know all this shit?" Naruto asked.

"Last month after their honeymoon, Tsunade and Jiraiya headed in Rain Country in search of Akatsuki's leader Pein, and they expierenced some difficulties. Sakura's mentor Tsunade's dead Naruto. She died saving Jiraiya, who gave me all the intel. It's why he hasn't been back yet, he couldn't get over her death. They told me they managed to kill four of his bodies, leaving two left."

"What you mean, four of his bodies?" Naruto asked, genuinely intrigued, as well as full of sorrow for his other father figure Jiraiya.

"Pein has a jutsu that allowed his soul to be split six ways and take over a person's body. He also has a doujutsu like the Sharingan, called the Rinnegan that allows him to see everything every body of his does as well as things we don't even know about. He's dangerous. That is why we need to ally ourselves with Suna, Naruto. It's not cause I hate you that I'm doing this, it's because I love you and want you to live and become Hokage after me. Please reconsider and marry Temari for the sake of our village." Minato begged, something he'd never done to his son before.

"I need to think." Naruto said, closing his eyes and taking it all in.

Anko pretty much dumped him today, pronouncing her new 'single' status. But he needed closure before he did this.

"Fine, I'll marry Temari-san. But there's something I need to do first. By your leave, Hokage-sama?" Naruto asked.

Minato nodded dumbly, and Naruto vanished.

"Why did the Akatsuki have to pop up now?" the Hokage whined to his sand counterpart.

"Whose all in the Akatsuki besides Pein?" the Kazekage asked. "In case they manage to get into Suna."

"We know there's Pein, his accomplice named Konan, Deidara from Iwagakura, Hoshigaki Kisame from the Mist, and lastly, the famous nukenin from Konoha, Uchiha Itachi." Minato finished.

"Uchiha Itachi!" the Kazekage exclaimed.

Little did they know that another Uchiha had been listening in the whole time.

_I will kill you Itachi!!_

AN: Sorry for the delay, but I hope you like this chapter. Please be kind and leave a review, I do feed them to my muse, who lets me write faster.

Next chapter: The Second Chuunin Exam, and the nasty confrontation between Anko and Naruto. Not too mention a not so brooding avenger Uchiha reflects on his brother. Until next time, peace out.


	7. Second Exam: Deathproof

The Road Less Taken

_**The Road Less Taken**_

_**Chapter 7**_

_**Second Exam: Deathproof**_

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Kishimoto does.

I

He had to be strong for this, the thought ran idly in his head as he fumbled around with his fingers nervously, looking more like Hyuuga Hinata then Namikaze Naruto. Why is this always hard? Naruto thought. I'm the Yondaime's son, why am I acting like such a pansy?

"Are you alright, ero-gaki?" A soft, alluring voice spoke to him, and Naruto didn't have to look to know who it was. The very woman he had been about to seek out in the first place. God must really hate me… he mused, before standing up to face her.

"Evening Anko." he bit out a little too roughly. Anko quickly noticed the lack of an honorific to the end of her name. A part of her wanted to cry out to him, to grab him by the front of his shirt and kiss him. But she didn't, instead she merely feigned indifference.

"Shouldn't you be resting, getting some sleep before the second exam?" She replied just as roughly, wincing when she saw Naruto grimace. Unable to look her in the eyes, his gaze wondered elsewhere.

"Just what was I to you?" He honestly couldn't help but ask. The question had been on the tongue, and he couldn't help but spew it out. It had been constantly eating him away, chipping away at him numbness, forcing him to feel, when he'd been trying to do the opposite. Still unable to look into her eyes, he numbly noted that his cheeks were damp. Fuck, he was crying now. Isn't that a bitch? "Was I nothing to you? Was I just a bit of warm comfort on cold nights?"

Anko noticed that he'd been unable to look at her, and instinctively smelled the salty tang of tears. Fuck, she'd made the gaki cry. Every bone in her body demanded that she grabbed him and lick the tears dry, but with the experience of an emotionally distanced kunoichi, she laughed, albeit, the laughter didn't quiet reach her eyes. "Don't tell me your crying kid?" She smirked cruelly.

A sob got caught in his throat and he pushed it down vehemently. "I must have been so fucking stupid…" he said, as if mumbling to himself. "Everyone warned me about you. They all told me that you were no better then Orochimaru, just another user, and I've been defending you like some stupid, lovesick puppy."

Swallowing another sob violently, he clumsily dug into his pocket for a cigarette, found one and brought it to his lips, lighting it in a hurry, before taking a deep drag to calm himself down. "I was such a fool, thinking you could actually love me for me." he whispered, smoke billowing out with each syllable, tears flowing freely now. "You have now idea how much I love you, and you just stand there with sick indifference, knowing that I'm crying because of you." He spat out before pulling a deep drag off his cigarette. "Was everything you told me a lie? Do I mean less than nothing to you Mitarashi-sensei?" Naruto demanded, finally turning around to face her, salty tears streaking his whiskered cheeks.

Her resolve was breaking, her aching her shattering in pieces for him. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. "Gaki, could you tone the inner emo in you down for a bit? You're just a boy, you don't know the first thing about love, you sound so foolish for trying to convince yourself that you cared for me beyond a physical level. You're just a boy." She replied edgily, wondering how long she had before he lost his cool… she didn't have to wait long.

Innocent azure eyes ebbed away, replaced by twin orbs of demonic red. Naruto grabbed the front of her trench coat and slammed her against a wall, pressing his lean body against hers, his pelvis flush against hers. "A boy, ne Anko?" he growled out, Anko's hazel eyes glaring into his Kyuubi red ones. "A boy you willing took to bed over and over again. Do you know how much it meant to me losing my virginity to you, that first night we made love, you have no fucking idea what that meant for me. But I guess that it didn't mean anything to you." He released her, turning to walk away.

"I don't know, I guess you where just fucking your way to the top. You didn't want to be stuck at special jounin forever and jumped at an opportunity to train the Yondaime's son. It's cool, I'll put in a good word for you." Naruto spat at her, his face impassive.

"You got to pay the bills somehow." Anko replied with a shrug and a cold smile, wiping the tears from his eyes, he knew he had heard enough.

"Those that don't follow rules are trash, but those that intentionally hurt their comrades are less than trash, so I guess we know where you fit, Anko-chan." And with that, he walked away.

The blows that don't kill me, only serve to make me stronger… he remembered his father's words.

Mitarashi Anko watched Naruto leave, his words etching a deep wound in her heart, though he was not to blame. He didn't understand the reason for her departure, his feelings of abandonment resurfacing, causing him to lash out at her.

"_**You're not good enough for the boy." Uchiha Yukani had screeched at her. "The boy deserves something better than used goods."**_

Anko trembled, before falling to her knees and sobbing, crying, knowing she would never again know Naruto's love nor touch, and that in itself hurt more than anything he could ever say to her. After all that, how could she even survive around Naruto? Silently she damned the Yondaime and his stupid Uchiha wife. Anko disappeared to her room, sealing all the necessary things into several scrolls. She raised her trembling hands to the back of her head, and undid the knot to her hitai-ate, the metal side landing on the polished floor with a resounding clunk. Bending over, she picked it up and shunshined, heading over to the Hokage's office, where she jumped in through the window, interrupting an argument the Yondaime was having with his son Kakashi.

"How could you do that to Naruto and Anko, otousan?" Kakashi demanded.

Before the Yondaime could answer, Anko appeared in his office. "Yes, Anko-san?" Minato asked. He honestly had no idea what the jounin firecracker was about to say.

Anko reached into her trench coat and pulled out her hitai-ate, throwing it onto his desk offhandedly. "I resign as a Konoha-nin, Hokage-sama, and wish to transfer to an allied nation ANBU." Anko said determinedly.

"You're fucking kidding right?" The Hokage asked in shock.

"No, I'm done with you and your bigoted village. If I am denied, then mark me down as a nukenin because I'm done here." Anko replied evenly.

"Fine, I'm sending you to Kirigakure, let me write you a scroll for recommendation." Minato said, writing one up and then handing it to her. "Here you go. Represent Konoha well, Anko-san."

"Have a nice life Hokage-sama. Oh yeah, and by the way, fuck Konoha!" Anko spat angrily, disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

"You really fucked this one up, otousan." Kakashi replied, disappearing as well.

II

Naruto was crouched over murmuring fervently over the Hero's Memorial Stone. Whispering goodbye to his dead mother Kushina, he stood up only to be interrupted once more. "Hurts doesn't?" Naruto turned to stare at the intruder. It was the woman betrothed to him, the very beautiful Temari, the rose from Sunagakure.

"What does?" He asked, feigning ignorance. His expressionless blue eyes burned away into hers.

"Rejection. It always leaves a sting." Temari whispered, walking up to her future husband, wrapping her arm around him protectively. "It's okay to cry sometimes. You should just let it out." She continued, tilting her head to the side and staring at him, waiting for him to make the next move.

"She hurt me so bad, you know?" he spoke, the life returning to his eyes as they watered up again. "To love someone that much and think they love you like that. But they don't, they've just been using you the whole time, until finally they tire of you, and you don't even know until it's too late." A few tears escaped his eyes. She hugged him tight, Temari's face hidden in the crook of his neck, hoping she didn't cry as well.

"Naruto, if you let me, I'll be the best wife you could ask for, but please don't ever hurt me like she hurt you. I don't love you yet, but maybe one day I will and I don't ever want to be hurt like that again." Temari whispered against the side of his neck.

"I know neither of us asked for this Temari, but I'll keep my promise to never hurt you like that, and I'll do my best to try to love you, like I loved her." Naruto replied.

"No, Naruto-kun. Do not love me like you loved her, learn to love me more, and I'll do the same." Temari said, raising her head and bringing her lips to his in a small chaste kiss.

"Goodnight, Naruto-kun."

"Goodnight, Temari-chan."

The two departed after the quick kiss, both in need of rest, both physical and emotional.

III

_**13 HOURS LATER**_

_**FOREST OF DEATH**_

Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura tore through the Forest of Death trying to make it to the other side as fast as possible. Shizune, oddly enough became the new proctor for the second exams, and explained the second exam to them. Simply put they had to find the opposite scroll compared to the one they had. They had been given an earth scroll and were searching for another genin team with a Heaven Scroll. They had stopped next to a river, setting up a camp there. After setting numerous traps in a full circle parameter, they stopped to make themselves something to eat.

They had spent a mediocre amount of chakra since the second exam began. Within five hours they had beaten up a set of Kusa nins, only to find out they had a set of earth scrolls as well. Haruno Sakura had definitely impressed Naruto, she knocked out the enemy nin out cold. First she had used genjutsu to hide her position and a hard punch to the stomach had caused the nin to pass out instantly. It seemed her training with Tsunade-sama had paid off after.

Not that Naruto and Sasuke were any slouches, disposing of Kusa nin had been fairly easy, they hadn't been anywhere near their level.

Afterwards Sasuke and Naruto caught a couple of fish, six 20lb snooks to be exact, they quickly descaled them and filleted them with a kunai. While they had been fishing, Sakura had been collecting firewood to start a fire. Half an hour later, the snooks had been cooked and they three Konoha ninja were stuffed, their energy quickly replenishing.

"Go to sleep and rest up Naruto." Sasuke ordered, "I'll take the first watch." Naruto nodded and unsealed a sleeping bag from a scroll. Climbing in the bag, Naruto quickly fell asleep.

"Sasuke, can we talk?" Sakura asked, walking up to the raven hair Uchiha. Sasuke grunted in response. "When I started the academy, I did it all to be able to see you, I know I was a stupid fan girl, but over time I was definitely liking you for more than just your name, I really do Sasuke." Sakura said, her eyes getting moist from all the pent up emotion.

"Sakura, why do you care for me so? I've never been anything but a dick to you. I don't even know who I am anymore, so why do you care." Sasuke asked brutally.

"Because I need you in my life, in some sort of way. You made me want to be stronger. When I started out, I was just another fan girl, now I'm Tsunade-sama's apprentice, her heir to the medical throne as well as Shizune, and it's all because I wanted to be somebody for you. I don't have a fancy bloodline, or the daughter of a Hokage, but in loving you, I found a way to be stronger. Even if you never love me like I love you, I want to be there for you." Sakura finished.

"It's okay Sakura, I love you too." Sasuke turned to the pink hair girl with puckered lips, to find himself on the receiving end of a chakra enhanced punch, sending him back a couple of feet.

"Baka, I'm not stupid, who are you?" Sakura yelled, jumping to her feet and into an offensive stance. "Come on, Sasuke admitting that he cared about me, let alone loved me. You must be real stupid." Sakura said bitterly. The person she had punched popped out of henge, revealing a sound ninja.

"You hit pretty fucking hard, pinky. It's a shame I have to kill you, or maybe I should toy with you for a bit before killing you." The Oto nin in purple and black camouflage stated. He charged towards her again, swinging wildly, the lithe girl weaving under his outstretched arm and gripping a kunai she rose, slicing the jugular clean. The Oto nin fell back, a geyser of blood splurging from his neck.

Then turning into a log.

"Substitution jutsu." Sakura whispered to herself, narrowing her eyes. Her eyes widened as a large sword was swung at her head. Ducking the sword, she didn't have enough time to avoid the punch that landed to her stomach, causing her to double over in pain.

"You've forced me to reveal my true self. Stupid little girl." A man said, hovering over her. Sakura backed away, taking a good look at her attacker. He was taller than her, with long black hair and the creepiest fucking eyes she'd ever laid on. He had golden eyes, narrowed in slits, with purple surrounding it.

"Who are you?" Sakura asked, wheezing slightly.

He had on a fishnet shirt covered over by a purple jounin vest, black ninja pants, and a purple rope tied around his waist. "My name, I'm sorry for being rude, my name is Orochimaru, one of the Sannin. Before I kill you, please tell me who you are." The man Orochimaru demanded.

"Little old me? My name is Haruno Sakura, apprentice to Tsunade of the Sannin, you sick fuck." Sakura spat, sprinting towards him, punching his face in again, only to have it dissolve into a Tsuchi bunshin.

"My, my. I see you also have Tsunade's temper as well as her strength. It's too bad you'll share the same fate." Orochimaru laughed, appearing above her, landing a kick to her face, sending her back a couple of feet.

Sakura quickly stood up and powered up her chakra, running through a series of handseals. "Hidden Leaf Technique: Demonic Image." Sakura spoke, causing a flash of light, blinding Orochimaru. When the light subsided, a demonic looking Sakura loomed over Orochimaru.

"Stupid genjutsus don't fool me. Kai!" Orochimaru yelled, dispelling the technique. Except there was nobody in front of him, he didn't get the leisure of turning around before Sakura landed a punch into his back, sending him flying face first into a tree, knocking it over.

"Stupid girl. You'll never land another finger on me." Orochimaru growled, standing up, pulling out Kusanagi once more.

There was a sound of birds chirping.

When Orochimaru looked to the side, it was too late. Sasuke ran towards him at inhuman speeds, a peculiar jutsu in hand. Lightning crackled around his hand and Sasuke thrusted the arm into Orochimaru's chest, shocking him. "Chidori!"

There was an explosion, and when the smoke cleared, another log in its wake.

"You are just as strong as they Sasuke." Sasuke turned to his right to see a head flying in his direction, fangs bared and ready to bite him. Sasuke knew he wouldn't be able to avoid it.

"Rasengan!"

As the mouth was about to bite Sasuke, a spinning ball of chakra grinded into the extending neck, knocking it out of the way, before Orochimaru could bite Sasuke. Sasuke backed away and saw his best friend Naruto, standing over Orochimaru's body. Before Orochimaru could retaliate, Naruto sent a kick into his ribs, kicking him up into the air, and leaped in the air after him, landing a punch to his face.

Orochimaru was sent hurtling back to the ground, leaving a huge dent in the earth.

"Foolish boy." Orochimaru snapped, appearing above Naruto and kicking him in the face, sending him reeling. Naruto looked over to the spot Orochimaru had landed in a saw a puddle of mud.

That fuck…Naruto thought.

Naruto stood back up. "You're Orochimaru, aren't you? One of the Sannin, and the sensei of Mitarashi Anko?" Naruto demanded.

"Yes, boy. What of it?" Orochimaru asked.

"Because it's all your fault…" Naruto growled, eyes blazing red as he powered up, blue chakra disappearing and replaced by a malignant red. "You're the reason she's gone, why she's so fucked in the mind, and for that I'll kill you!" Naruto spat.

"You a boy will kill me? I am Orochimaru, on of the Sannin, disciple to the Sandaime Hokage. What makes you think you have a chance?" Orochimaru demanded, charging at him and landing another punch, then dodging a kunai that Sasuke had thrown.

"I am Namikaze Naruto. Disciple of the Yondaime Hokage, Jiraiya of the Sannin, and Mitarashi Anko. That and I am the future Hokage, do you hear me Orochimaru, and ironically enough, you won't be alive to see it." Naruto yelled, charging at the sannin once more, only to get kicked away.

Giving Sakura all the time she needed to land a vicious punch to his stomach. Orochimaru's eyes narrowed in surprise as he coughed up blood, apparently the genin had broken his ribs. Naruto stood back up to his feet. Sasuke charged at Orochimaru, holding wires in his hands. Orochimaru ducked and weaved the wires, but Naruto landed a punch to his back, sending him straight into the wires.

Sasuke took the opportunity and wrapped the wires around the S-ranked criminal, wrapping it around a tree and held to the remaining bit. "Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu." Sasuke yelled, a stream of fire lighting up the end of the wire, shooting straight to Orochimaru and lighting him up on fire, burning him alive.

"It's that Oto nin that first attack." Sakura pointed out confused. Rather than a crispy Orochimaru, the Oto nin that had attacked earlier was tired to the tree burned to death, a Heaven scroll in his hands. Sasuke reached over and grabbed it.

"Let's go then." Sasuke said, without thinking much of it.

Up in the trees Orochimaru watched the genin team. "They're way too strong to attack all at once. I have to get Sasuke by himself. And to think they 'killed' me when I was using 10 percent of my chakra so easily. Just how strong are the new genin." Orochimaru pondered.

Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura made it to the tower in another hour, passing the second exam.

IV

Temari couldn't help but think of Naruto, as her and her brothers strolled through the forest, both scrolls intact. She had been a bitch at first, when they first met at the first part of the exams. It stung to be rejected by him for some reason, especially for just a jounin when she herself was the daughter of a Kazekage. She wouldn't make Kazekage herself, most likely that would be given to Gaara, the strongest of the three. But still she was the daughter of a Kazekage, men from all over the Great Nations swooned over her, trying to convince her for a marriage, and Naruto had shot her down without a second thought.

She couldn't help but follow him afterwards. She wasn't a stalker by any means, but she wanted to understand, what it was about Naruto that made him care for Anko so. Watching him get rejected by the Special Jounin so cruelly, despite the fact that she could tell she wanted Naruto. It took some convincing to force herself to believe that Anko had actually cried after Naruto left.

Why was she dumping him then?

Still curious, she followed Naruto to the Hero's Memorial Stone where he cried, and prayed to his mother and Temari couldn't help but be touched. Despite not knowing him, watching him cry to his dead mother and spill his emotions out there touched her. Back in Sunagakure, they lived by the shinobi standards of not showing emotion. Her brother Gaara was a big example, the only emotion he had expressed for the majority of 8 years had been anger. Until he met her…

Nii Yugito.

Container to the Nibi bijuu.

Gaara's attraction to her hadn't been physical or sexual. It had been about power, they happened to stumble into her on a mission in Kumogakure. Gaara had only been thirteen at the time and had picked a fight with the jinchiruuki and the two dueled it out until Gaara himself had been defeated. No one had ever been able to land a hit on him until this girl, who had been unnaturally fast, with a large arsenal of deadly fire and lightning techniques.

"_**Why do you fight so hard to protect him? Love only yourself you fool, that is the only way to be truly strong!" Gaara said harshly.**_

"_**Because I love him. You never will see how strong you can be until you're forced to use your strength to protect someone. That's why I will win, it's because of my feelings for him that I'll win this fight. You have no one to love so you'll never be at full strength."**_

After the fight with Nii Yugito, Gaara had undeniably changed. Understanding her words, he realized that love was not a weakness but rather strength, and instead of distancing himself from his family, Gaara did everything he could love them, and gain their love. He even managed to repair his relationship with his father, who had been sending assassins after him since he was six.

Little by little Gaara had opened up, and Temari couldn't be happier.

Seeing how defensive Naruto had gotten over Anko, it reminded her of Nii Yugito and her inner strength.

Their first kiss had been chaste, but monumental, and something she'd never forget. Being his betrothed, Temari would do everything in her power to love him, and perhaps she'd find that inner strength Yugito had.

V

_**Hokage's Office**_

"Yukani-chan, just what in the fuck did you tell Anko?" Minato demanded angrily, his white coat swishing about around him.

"That she wasn't good enough for the boy, that he deserved better." Yukani replied, sitting down in a chair.

Minato paced about angrily. Thanks to his wife he had just lost a jounin, a damn good one at that which specialized in the art of killing. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a cigarette, lighting it up in a hurry. "Why the fuck didn't you tell me?" he argued, blowing smoke into her face, much to her displeasure.

"You know those things could kill right?" she replied sarcastically, dismissing the subject.

"So can I, only I'm deadlier." Minato growled out, pulling another drag from his cigarette. "You didn't answer the fucking question Yukani-chan." He reminded her, as though an afterthought.

"We all keep secrets Minato-kun, even you." Yukani replied.

"Just what do you mean?" He demanded.

"For example, Naruto doesn't know that I'm technically his real mother." Kushina said, a sad smile crossing her lips.

"Uzumaki Kushina is his mother and you know it!"

"Must I remind you of how barren Kushina was? Kushina might of given birth to him, but it is not her genes that run through your son, but mines." Yukani said, pulling out a cigarette of her own.

"You just donated an egg, but he's just like his real mother Kushina." Minato snapped at her.

"Perhaps, but that's because you placed a blood marker on his, sealed away next to the Kyuubi, hypothetically if he were to lose said seal, he would lose some of the very qualities that Kushina's blood were instilled in his, and my Uchiha genes would dominate it. Naruto and Sasuke are blood cousins and you know it."

"Fine, but there aren't any other secrets I've kept from you." Minato pointed out.

"How about the real reason behind Uchiha Fugaku's death?"

Minato narrowed his eyes at his wife.

AN Pt 2: I really don't know what to make of this chapter. Yeah, the fight with Orochimaru was kind of short, and before I get your panties in a bunch, do remember that they are sixteen years old. I've said in a previous chapter, that most characters are about as strong as they were in Shippuden. Take Naruto for example, trained by Minato, Jiraiya, and Anko. Not to mention that he's a Kyuubi jinchiruuki. Sasuke, the avenger, training for years to kill his brother and his apprenticeship to Hatake Kakashi, and Sakura, apprentice to Tsunade. Not to mention that the jutsu that Orochi-teme used only took a tenth of his chakra away.


	8. Preliminaries

The Road Less Taken

_**The Road Less Taken**_

_**Chapter 8: Preliminaries**_

_**By: DanielNieves**_

A/N: Thank you for all your support with this fic and the Requiem of a Demon. I want to finish this fic by chapter 15, so I can start another project I got on my mind and then I will be writing the sequel to the Road so be on the lookout for it.

I

"So you going to tell me or are you going to stand there?" Yukani asked, glaring at her husband. After being married to him for thirteen years, she recently found a lead that indicated the Yondaime's involvement in the death of her aniki Uchiha Fugaku.

Minato narrowed his azure eyes at his wife, a look of disdain on his face at the mere mention of Fugaku. Hands clenched at his sides, and teeth bared, the Yondaime looked absolutely dangerous. "What do you mean?" Minato asked dangerously, causing Yukani to shudder for a second.

"I honestly doubt that Uchiha Itachi, a well known Konoha patriot, the Uchiha prodigy would murder his father cold blooded unless there was some sort of order while he was ANBU Captain. Itachi was my nephew, and for him to kill my brother, I still haven't believed it, even if it happened nearly a decade ago." Yukani explained.

"So why are you harassing me?" Minato asked, sitting back in his chair, arching a blond brow.

"Uchiha Itachi only answered to you and Danzou. Something or someone caused him to do what he did, and believe me when I tell when I tell you that I will find out." Yukani whispered angrily.

"Why? So you can clear your brother's name? Fugaku was no saint, don't ever forget that." Minato replied edgily.

"Is that an admittance of guilt?" Yukani asked.

"It is not an admittance, nor would I feel guilty had I ordered Itachi to kill him. Leave me now, I have work to do." Minato spat.

With one last glare, Yukani left the Hokage's office.

Grabbing a cigarette out of his vest, Minato lit it up and disappeared in a flash of yellow, heading towards the tower in Training Area 44.

II

Naruto popped a soldier pill and handed out one to Sasuke and Sakura. Quickly he felt his strength coming to him, his chakra replenishing. Both Sasuke and Sakura nodded their thanks and they grabbed both scrolls and held them out in front of them.

"Are we supposed to open them?" Sakura asked.

"I don't know. I think we are." Sasuke replied. Both he and Naruto unrolled the seal holding the scroll together, and both scrolls unfurled, and there was a poof of smoke revealing a tan skinned Chuunin with a scar on his nose.

"Iruka-sensei." Naruto said happily, staring at the older man.

"Naruto, how are you doing?" Iruka asked, holding out his hand, which Naruto clasped tightly in a handshake. The tanned Chuunin pulled Naruto in a manly hug. "I'm glad you passed baka." He continued, a smile on his face.

"I was never a baka…" Naruto responded, pushing the Chuunin off him.

"No, you weren't. Bigheaded maybe, but never a baka." Iruka said, grinning impishly.

"So what are you doing here?" Sasuke asked stoically.

"I'm your Chuunin summon. Had you opened the scrolls prior to being in the Tower, I was supposed to disqualify you, but since you passed I'm here to congratulate you and show you to the waiting arena where the preliminaries are supposed to start."

"Preliminaries." Sakura asked.

"Yeah. Basically too many people passed and we need to weed down the numbers a bit before the Finals. Since at the finals we're going to have Daimyos from all over watching, we don't want too many people to advance and then bore them to death." Iruka explained.

Naruto nodded. "How many are supposed to pass?" He asked.

"Eight genin. So I hope you guys are three of them." Iruka said.

"Eight genin. How many teams have passed?" Sasuke asked, incredulous.

"So how many teams are there?" Sakura asked.

"Five teams passed, including yours. Fifteen genin. One of the genin will be selected at random and he'll automatically advance to finals and the remaining fourteen will fight, until only seven remain, and those eight will go advance and fight for the chance to become chuunin. I hope all three of you become chuunin." Iruka said, before turning and leading towards the arena.

At the arena, Naruto got a good look at those who passed. He saw the Sand team, his betrothed Temari, and her brother's Gaara and Kankuro. Team Eight was there, with Lee shouting exuberantly about how youthful it was. The Ino-Shika-Cho team passed as well as a Sound team consisting of Tsuchi Kin, Dosu and Zaku.

Naruto couldn't really stand the Sound team, they seemed overly arrogant and he honestly hoped that he was chosen to take them on. As all the genin stood on the top floor, the Yondaime appeared in a flash of yellow, white trench coat billowing against the wind.

"For all those who passed, I congratulate you. It will make passing the best eight genin to the finals a lot easier. But thank you for the effort you've shown to be here, for setting an example for each of our younger generations of what it is to be brimming with the Will of Fire.

"Up ahead is a screen, where your names will be selected as well as your opponents. Genma-san will be the referee and if he decides you can no longer continue, your road to chuunin ends here." the Yondaime spoke, sending a reproachful look at his son, with a gleam in his eyes that demanded that he pass and end up in the Chuunin Finals.

"On the screen a name will be chosen at random, that person will automatically pass to the Finals." Genma said, appearing in the center of the arena.

All sixteen names began to flash and one name was revealed.

Sabaku no Gaara…

"Gaara, for now, you're safe." Genma spoke and Gaara growled, itching for a fight.

The names began to flash once more and a set of names were chosen.

Sabaku no Kankuro and Zaku from the Sound.

Both contestants appeared in the middle of the ring in an offensive stance, ready to fight.

II

A lone woman stood in front of the gates of Kirigakure, her hair a soft shade of violet, hazel eyes brimming with tears. Goodbye Naruto…she thought as she wiped them off on the back of her sleeve and marched onwards towards the village gate.

"State your business traveler." A Kiri chuunin demanded, standing in front of her with a cautious look on his still young face.

"Mitarashi Anko, Special Jounin of Konoha. I'm here on orders from the Hokage to transfer into the ANBU division of Kiri." Anko stated, her gaze boring into the Chuunin. Biting her thumb, she swiped it across a scroll, unsealing it, revealing her set of orders.

The chuunin reviewed them carefully and nodded. "I'll radio an escort to take you to the Mizukage's office." Seconds later another Kiri chuunin appeared, short with platinum blonde hair and light blue eyes and Anko took a sharp intake of breath.

Surprised at her sudden reaction, he held his hand out to her, baby blue eyes digging into hers. "Hello Anko-san, I am Kazama Arashi." The two shook hands briefly, and Anko couldn't help but compare Naruto and Arashi. While Naruto had his hair up in spikes, Arashi had his hair a distinctive platinum blond spike's tied into a ponytail, several spiky bangs hanging over his face.

Naruto had a tall, lanky, but lean kind of figure that had fitted oh so perfectly against hers. Arashi was taller than Naruto by a half foot, a giant compared to Anko and was buff, and proud of it. He had on a tight spandex sleeveless shirt, allowing his bulky arms total mobility and freedom, and had a purple chuunin vest over it. Arashi had loose, dark blue cargo pants and standard shinobi sandals.

To say that Anko was not a tiny bit attracted to the bulky blonde would be an underestimation. But she was not in Kiri for that, she was here to forget about another blond in another village and bury herself in work until it didn't hurt anymore.

"Are you read to go see the Mizukage?" Arashi asked.

"Hai." Anko replied passively and the two shunshined, disappearing in a flash.

After traveling through plenty of ports and docks, the two entered the active part of the village where there was a tall tower in the center of it. Most of the other homes look poorly built, yet the tower stood there proudly, demanding admiration for its beauty.

Not that the entire of the village was poor, the homes surrounding the ports and docks were beautiful, but the closer to the tower the got, it seemed as the homes there were worse off.

After passing through the security, Arashi and Anko knocked on the Mizukage's door and entered in when the got a grunt in response. Honestly, the Mizukage's visage was somewhat disappointing.

Anko was expecting somewhat of a towering man, like Arashi, but instead there was a man in white and blue robes, several inches shorter than Arashi. He looked young, seemingly in his mid-thirties or younger. He had a tall crop of spiky black hair and black eyes that seemed void of life. The Mizukage was staring out of a window, overseeing the city, turning around and narrowing his eyes at Anko.

"Who is this Arashi-kun?" the Mizukage demanded.

Anko couldn't help but wonder how this man happened to be the Mizukage in Kirigakure, their really didn't seem to be anything special about him, was he the best in Kirigakure?

"She is from Konoha, Mizukage-sama. According to her she was given orders by the Hokage to integrate with our village's ANBU or hunter-nin division." Arashi explained, hands clasped to his sides, standing at attention.

Anko gave the Mizukage a small, formal bow. "Ohayo Mizukage-sama. I am Mitarashi Anko from Konohagakure, reporting under the orders of Hokage-sama."

The Mizukage gave her a small calculating look. "Hai, Anko-san. How about we cut the bullshit though?" the Mizukage demanded.

"What do you mean, Mizukage-sama?" Anko asked, hazel eyes flashing with ire.

"What is the real reason Konoha is transferring their best assassin over to Kirigakure, who's known for their brutality. I didn't become Mizukage by being a fool, Anko-san. Why are you here, does the Hokage want eyes in this village?" the Mizukage accused.

"With all due respect, you can turn down the offer. I'm not a Konoha spy, merely I disagreed with some of their methods and teachings and chose to part ways. If you don't want Konoha's best assassin, I'm sure another village might, Mizukage-sama." Anko replied, grinding her teeth to prevent her from saying something that might get her killed.

Instead the Mizukage laughed. "I do not mean to offend you, Anko-san. I am Kazama Tobi, Mikukage of Kirigakure." He said, extending his hand out to her.

Anko shook it, sealing the deal.

She was a Kiri shinobi now.

III

It didn't take long for Kankuro to beat Zaku. Both fighters were proud of their skills, but Zaku was on a different level, his overbearing arrogance more than Kankuro could handle, finally finishing him off by poisoning him with some poison senbon.

That's not to say the fight was easy. Zaku had chased after Kankuro launch several sound blasts at him, keeping Kankuro at a longer distance than he felt comfortable with. Several times throughout the battle, Zaku taunted Kankuro because of the makeup and cat suit Kankuro wore.

After Zaku's arms were disabled, it was the end for the cocky sound nin as he couldn't block the poison senbon Kankuro sent his way.

The names on the screen began to randomize again and this time it chose two select names, picking a fight that many had wanted to see for years.

Doujutsu vs Doujutsu.

Sharingan vs Byukagan

Uchiha Sasuke vs Hyuuga Neji.

Both contestants jumped over the balcony and landed in the arena with a resonating slam. The two glared at each other and didn't hesitates to use their doujutsu from the get go.

Blood red eyes stared into the pale lavenders of Neji's, the black wheels in his eyes spinning in his eyes furiously.

"If you believe that because you are from the famed Uchiha clan that you will defeat me, do not delude yourself Sasuke. Stop now before fate stops you." Neji said smugly, a faint smile tracing his lips.

Sasuke didn't reply. He refused to let the teen intimidate him with his big talks of fate and such. He was Uchiha Sasuke, the legendary avenger and sole heir to the prestigious Uchiha clan.

"Instead of hearing you prattle on about how great the Hyuugas are, how about we let our battle do the talking." Sasuke said, his blood red eyes piercing through the older boy's façade.

"I see you are still deluded, Uchiha-san. It appears insanity runs through your blood just as surely as it ran through Itachi's." Neji responded, baiting him.

Up in the stands, Naruto wished it was him fighting Neji, God how he wished he could kick that smug fuck's ass.

"I can see your eyes misting up Uchiha. Fate chose for Itachi to go on his path and fate chose for you to be perpetually weak and lose to me today. This is your last cha…"

Before Neji could finish, in a millisecond, Sasuke deactivated his gravity seals and tore through the air, punching Neji clean across his mouth.

"Did I not say that our battle would do the talking. I'm Uchiha Sasuke, and I never back down." Sasuke said dangerously, taking chase after Neji's prone body. Before he could reach him, Neji was already spinning an a fast revolution, chakra exploding from all 361 tenketsus and Sasuke got caught in it's wake, sending him flying across the arena and against the wall in a sickening slap.

Neji smirked.

Sasuke stood up and gathered his bearings, reaching into his kunai holsters and launched a kunai at Neji before rushing in at him. Neji caught the kunai by sticking his finger in the ring of the kunai, before slinging it back at him.

The speed the Neji launched the kunai at, plus Sasuke's own momentum, caused the kunai to go straight through his throat, unable to avoid the incoming kunai.

Sasuke clutched at his larynx, blood squirting up in the air before a poof of smoke revealed it to be a log.

Neji growled, turning around only to receive a sharp kick to his chin, sending him up in the air. Sasuke hovered underneath him using the Konoha Leaf Shadow technique and landed a punch to his back, sending the arrogant Hyuuga up higher. Before Sasuke could land another punch, the Hyuuga spun around in mid air and focused chakra to his fingers before jabbing Sasuke in the shoulder, closing a tenketsu. Sasuke's eyes widened, before Neji kicked him in the face, sending him crashing back down.

"I only allowed you to hit me, so I could get you. You are fast, Uchiha-san, but no one, no one cheats fate." Neji spat, landing back on the arena floor, and charging at Sasuke.

Sasuke struggled to get the feeling back in his arm, but it was to no avail. He wouldn't be able to power chakra through his left arm, which eliminated his best techniques.

He never tried performing techniques by using one handed seal signs.

So what could he do?

His left arm limply at his side. 'Kuso!' He thought, before charging at Neji once again.

Neji saw the incoming attack.

Before Sasuke could land a punch, Neji sidestepped and swung his body around him, before hitting him in the back with a Jyuuken. Sasuke wanted to let out a scream as his back felt like it was on fire, the chakra enhanced technique puncturing his discs, and Sasuke couldn't help but cough up blood, as he spat it out, a look of disgust on his face.

"You're within my field of divination." Neji said cruelly, and as Sasuke turned around, Neji stormed in hitting him with the Jyuuken repeatedly.

"Eight… Sixteen… Thirty-two… Sixty four!" Neji bellowed, raining the last couple blows on Sasuke's major tenketsus. Sasuke flew backwards again, landing horribly on his back, before poofing into a puff of smoke.

Neji didn't have time to react as Sasuke's foot came crashing down on the top of his skull, sending him face first into the ground.

Sasuke backed up, panting heavily.

'That bastard got about sixteen fucking hits on me with the Jyuuken. If I get to close I'm fucked, but he has three hundred sixty degree vision, and if I'm correct, can pretty much block anything that get's within a fifteen yard radius of his Byakugan range.'

Neji got up off the ground, panting slightly. He hadn't expected the Uchiha to be that fast or to even get a hit on him. But he had, he had passed through his byakugan and landed a hit on him.

According to Neji's calculation's, with the byakugan he had three hundred and fifty nine degree vision and could stop nearly any attack that came within a fifteen yard radius. Yet he couldn't completely read Sasuke and it showed as a roaring pain burned on the top of Neji's head where Sasuke's foot had collided.

Charging up chakra to his fingerprints once more, Neji sprinted again towards the tired Uchiha who launched another set of kunais at him which Neji blocked deftly.

Suddenly Sasuke was going through a set of hand seals, too fast for Neji too see except the tiger and horse seal, and suddenly Sasuke stopped and yelled, "Katon: Housenka no Jutsu." And several balls of fire launched themselves at Neji, who immediately began spinning, tenketsus bursting with chakra as he spun around blocking the incoming fireballs.

But he let his guard down as he stopped revolving and Sasuke had already launched his next attack. "Sharingan Windmill Triple Blade!" Neji couldn't avoid the shuriken that whizzed around him, wires attached, binding him.

"Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu!" Neji's eyes widened in fear as a flame of fire shot down the wire and headed towards him hastily.

Sasuke grinned, knowing he had it in the bag with this one as Neji was bound by the wires, unable to move. Just as the fire was about to burn him, there was a flash of light blinding Sasuke's eyes, the searing pain causing him to turn away for a second.

A second Neji used to his advantage, crossing the room to strike him repeatedly with the Jyuuken, Sasuke's tenketsus closing at an astonishing rate, and finally Neji landed the final blow to Sasuke's chest, knocking him to the ground.

Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise, blood being coughed out uncontrollably.

Neji smirked cruelly. "I told you to accept your fate Uchiha-san. No one escapes the claws of fate, absolutely no one. My father couldn't, I couldn't, and neither could you in the end."

"I'm sorry." Sasuke coughed out, trying to raise his arm to wipe the blood off his lip.

"You're sorry? Sorry for what, it was only chance that you were chosen to be my opponent, and even then you fought me so well, I began to doubt myself."

"I'm sorry you're dad died." Sasuke responded, standing up to his feet shakily.

"I'm sorry about your father Sasuke. But nothing will change the past, I've come to acceptance."

"How would your father feel if he were to see you now? Mines would be proud, I know as much. But would your dad be proud to see you become such a bitter kid?" Sasuke asked.

Angrily, Neji charged in a hit him in the stomach.

"Shut up. You don't even know what it's like to be me…"

"You're right. I don't… just as you don't know what it's like to be me. But I'd rather choose my own fate, then let it be chosen for me." Sasuke said, biting his thumb until it bled.

"What are you doing, I closed off are your tenketsus?" Neji asked.

"You can thank the Yondaime for this one. It's a backup plan, in case something like this would happen." Sasuke replied, wiping the bloody thumb across a tattoo he had on his arm.

The seal activated and suddenly Sasuke's body was flooding with chakra.

"What? How?"

"It's a chakra seal. A seal designed to store chakra so when my body runs out, activating the seal replenishes it." Sasuke responded, two tomoes spinning in his blood red eyes. "I'm going to finish you off with this attack." Sasuke continued.

Sasuke began charging up his chakra, then began running through a set of hand seals. Ram, horse, dragon, tiger, serpent, rat, horse, dog, ram.

Clutching his right bicep with his left arm, Sasuke's right arm began flooding with chakra, then it suddenly began emitting sparks that was reminiscent of a chirping bird. Neji stared at Sasuke, wondering what he'd do next. The chirping sound continued and suddenly Sasuke began sprinting towards Neji, his entire hand encased in lightning chakra.

Pale eyes widened, Neji began to spin into another Kaiten to block the incoming attack.

"Chidori Nami no Jutsu." Sasuke bellowed, slamming his attack against Neji's Kaiten. The blinding light that ensued was enough to nearly make Sasuke turn away, but he continued pushing against the dome of chakra until it shattered with a resonating crack and Sasuke's arm pushed through and slammed into Neji.

Neji began to convulse as his body began to overload with the excess voltage and he screamed, before falling to the ground.

"That is my Chidori Nami. It's a lightning based attack that when it connects, it overflows the opponent's body with voltage, frying the nerve receptors to the point where it can no longer receive information from the brain, and knocking you out. Did fate foresee that, because your all seeing Byakugan didn't." Sasuke said.

Genma stepped in so Sasuke wouldn't continue. "Sasuke wins and advances." Genma declared, and Sasuke shunshined out of the arena and up into the balcony with his team.

Naruto was up there with a shit eating grin on his face. "Nice job Sasuke. I thought he had you there for a second." Naruto said, extending his hand, which Sasuke took.

"You better advance too, Namikaze Naruto."

Tenten and Temari were chosen next. The two fighters headed in to the arena and about five minutes later, Tenten lost. Her sole arsenal was weapon based which proved ineffective against Temari's wind jutsus. Finally Temari was fed up and used her Wind Scythe jutsu which knocked Tenten out cold.

The nice thing was that after the match, Temari shook hands with Tenten, and thanked her for trying her best, which took Naruto by surprise.

The next couple of matches were a blur to Naruto. Rock Lee defeated Chouji, despite his handicaps, he more than made up for it with his high speed taijutsu. Sakura defeated Ino, mainly due to her inhuman strength passed down by Tsunade-sama though it could have went either way and then Shikamaru beat Tsuchi Kin.

As fate would have it, Naruto was chosen last to fight. His opponent was Dosu, a vicious looking sound nin with odd contraptions on his arms.

Naruto quickly shunshined to the arena and so did his opponent. The blond genin took a good look and while he was not by any means afraid of the Oto nin, he knew he couldn't underestimate him at all.

Dosu was dressed in some sort of drab camouflage with bandages covering his face, leaving his left eye to be seen. His headband covered the other side of his face in some sort of Kakashi like style and was glaring at Naruto.

Naruto himself was dressed in an ANBU like state. He had on a black sleeve less shirt, with arm guards and black finger less gloves and black ANBU pants with shin guards. He had a dark blue sash wrapped around his waist and a blue dragon on the back of his shirt.

'KAWAII.' Temari thought as she stared at him.

"I'll give you one chance to give up, son of the Hokage." Dosu spoke calmly, arms outstretched, with chakra pulsating from each contraption.

"Funny, I was going to say the same to you." Naruto replied.

"I'll take that as a no." Dosu snarled and charged at Naruto. Naruto merely smiled before vanishing from view with a shunpo and reappearing in front of Dosu landing a vicious punch to his stomach, doubling him over in agony.

"Offer still stands." Naruto said, before raising his knee and smashing it into Dosu's face, sending him up in the air. Naruto charged up flames to his hands and launched himself in the air before landing another punch to Dosu's face with a sickening crunch. The flames themselves seared Dosu's bandaged face, and pain was clearly etched on his face.

Naruto swung again, but this time his fist collided with the arm contraption of Dosu's, much to his painful displeasure. Dosu grinned, but the grin was wiped clean as Naruto spun in midair and kicked him hard across the neck, sending him crashing back down to the arena floor, cracking the tiles.

Naruto landed on his feet catlike and stared at his opponent, waiting for his next move. Dosu got up and held out his arms.

"You're going to wish you hadn't done that." He spat, charging at Naruto again, the gauntlet on his arms blaring with chakra.

Naruto readied himself, not really sure of the arm gauntlets capabilities. But he had to expect anything, to expect any less could mean death. Dosu appeared above Naruto and swung which Naruto sidestepped. Before he could retaliate though, suddenly he felt dizzy and nauseous.

His vision suddenly became distorted and Naruto couldn't help but double over and puke his guts out, his breakfast splattering the deck.

"That is my unique jutsu. These gauntlets unleash sound waves which I control with chakra, directing them into your ears at such a loud volume it ruptures your ear drums and continues until it distorts your vision and makes you dizzy, unable to attack." Dosu said.

Naruto scowled, and reached up to wipe the blood that was trickling down his ears.

"I'm going to break those gauntlets you're so proud of." Naruto replied, snarling, as his fangs elongated and his eyes turned blood red with black slits.

"That would be impossible chibi Yondaime. Not only did my jutsu render you useless but these gauntlets are unbreakable." Dosu responded, readying up for another attack.

Naruto tried to focus and concentrate, yet it seemed to be out of grasp. Dosu charged and went to attack again, only this time Naruto vanished and appeared several yards behind him launching a demon windmill shuriken that he summoned from a scroll.

The shuriken whizzed towards Dosu and decapitated him, only for a puff of smoke to reveal that Dosu had used a kawarimi.

"When did you summon it? I didn't even see you bite your thumb…"

"You wouldn't of. I used the blood that was leaking from my ears and when I shunshined away from you, I swiped the blood on a summoning scroll and launched it at you." Naruto replied.

"It's a good thing I ducked that shuriken then." Dosu smirked cockily.

"Is it?" Naruto replied, and before Dosu could move, the shuriken came up behind him and sliced through his left arm cleanly.

Dosu let out a guttural scream as blood began to spout from the injured area. "How?" he demanded shrilly, apparently not being used to the idea of real pain.

"You got too cocky. I meant for you to duck the shuriken, I had wires attached and when your back was turned, I yanked the wire and brought it back around. You should have given up when you had the chance." Naruto remarked.

"You bastard. How dare you?"

"A true shinobi never drops down his guard and he never underestimates his opponent. You were so arrogant, you never dreamed that there would be someone to be able to defeat you. I told you I'd take those gauntlets you were so proud of." Naruto replied.

"I still got one left motherfucker." Dosu growled out, aiming his right arm at Naruto.

"You just don't get it." Naruto said, shaking his head. The blond genin held his right arm out and suddenly the chakra began visible, swirling around in a thin ball of chakra. The chakra continued building until the attack was big enough, and the swirling continued inside the ball of chakra, nearly unstable.

Dosu prepared his next attack, but before he could do anything, Naruto crossed the distance and slammed the swirling ball of chakra into the remaining gauntlet. "Rasengan!"

There was a sick screeching sound as the Rasengan began to grind into the gauntlet and Naruto continued to pour more chakra and suddenly the gauntlet shattered, metal bits scattering in midair and the Rasengan continued grinding into Dosu's arm, blood shooting up as the technique grinding past the flesh, and past the bone.

Dosu let out a final scream as his right arm was nearly severed, dangling on his by a few stringy muscles.

Genma stepped in, but it was too late. Dosu crashed to the deck with a sickening thud, and the flow of blood stopped.

He was convincingly dead.

IV

A lone white haired man sat in a bar hours later with his favorite disciple. "You're kids a piece of work, ne Minato-kun." The white hair man said, grabbing his cup of sake and chugging it.

"Yeah. I'd say so, he's so strong, strong than what a normal Konoha genin, hell a Konoha chuunin should be." Minato replied. "He's learned from us though, we taught him well Jiraiya-tousan."

"Tsunade would have been proud." Jiraiya said, pouring himself another cup, unable to stop the stem of tears that poured from his eyes.

"Yes. She would have been proud of him. We need some leaders in the younger generation. Now that we know for sure that the Akatsuki are going to attack during the Finals of the Chuunin Exam, we need a leader for the aftermath."

"I wouldn't normally ask this of you, kid. But please, kill Pein for me, for Tsunade. He took her away from me, the only woman I've ever loved, and she's gone, like she never existed at all." Jiraiya said, wiping the tears quickly, before chugging the next cup of sake.

"I will, even if it kills me. Not to mention we have Orochi-teme to worry about in the future as well. We've got our work cut out for us, tousan." Minato responded, clasping his hand on the older nin's shoulder.

"I'll take care of Orochimaru. Just make sure Pein dies as well." Jiraiya said, before disappearing from the bar.

'I will sensei. Even if it kills me. So now we got a month till the finals and Naruto will be training with me and Jiraiya, the poor boy's going to have his work cut out for him.' Minato thought, chugging his drink before leaving a few ryou on the table and vanishing as well.


	9. Desert Lilies Bloom Amongst the Leaves

The Road Less Taken

The Road Less Taken

Chapter Nine: Desert Lilies Blooming Amongst the Leaves

By: Daniel Nieves

_I_

_"Nii-san, Hiashi-teme's been picking on me. He said that Uchihas were nothing but worthless watch dogs and that the Sharingan is nothing when compared to the Byakugan." Yukani sobbed out, gripping on the lapels of her brother's jacket. Compassionate brown eyes peered into hers and for a split second she had forgotten all of her troubles at the academy, the warmth held in his eyes warming her, letting her know that everything would be alright._

_"Don't worry imouto, I'll take care of that teme." Fugaku replied, wrapping his arms around his little sister, holding her close._

_"Thank you nii-san." Yukani replied, allowing herself to be comforted by her brother's presence._

_"Don't worry about it imouto. I'm always going to be here for you, that's what a big brother does."_

_o0o_

_"You see nii-san, I'm officially a genin of Konoha." the ten year old cried out happily, giggling as she pointing to the shiny new hitai-ate she bore on her forehead._

_Fugaku motioned for her to come over there with his hand. Sprinting as fast as her legs could take her she ran over to her thirteen year old brother who jabbed her in the forehead with his index and middle finger. Fugaku smirked at her scowl, before running his hand through her hair, "I see. Make the Uchihas proud imouto, you know we can't have any weak Uchiha's." Fugaku retorted, his voice light, letting his sister know he was only jesting._

_"One day I'll even be stronger than you, nii-san." Yukani shouted out, before enveloping her brother in a hug._

_"I hope so, Yuka-chan, I hope so." Fugaku replied sagely, before allowing a grin to grace his face._

_o0o_

_"Nii-san!!" Yukani cried as she ran towards her brother's corpse, before falling to her knees in front of him, the wet mud staining her pants. Staring into his eyes, she duly noted the lack of warmth, the lack of life that she saw so vividly in his brown hues, now twin grey orbs lacking the essence, the spark of life._

_"Yukani!!" Minato yelled sprinting towards his wife._

_"Nii-san!!" Yukani sobbed out, spittle littering the air as she clutched his head, removing the kunai from his forehead, congealed blood dribbling out, causing Yukani to gag. Dried blood caked his face, and her eyes welled with tears, hastily fallen down her face as a slow montage of memories filtered through her head. Memories with no sense of time, memories of happiness that her brother had provided for her. Clutching his head to her chest, she cried._

_Minato kneeled to his wife, reluctant to touch her and allowed her to grieve, his own blue orbs tearing up. Fugaku had been his friend, he'd strived so hard not to be a stereotypical Uchiha, training his sons to be like him. He had passed on his ideals, the consequence of arrogance, struggling to make his children humble, rather than the proud wielders of the Sharingan that had caused so much destruction prior the creation of the village._

_"I'm so sorry..." Minato whispered, his voice a low baritone revealing the sadness that carried out in his voice. Yukani turned to him, ignoring her brother momentarily as a low growl escaped her throat. _

_"Who did this?" She growled out tearfully._

_Minato could do little but comply, "It was Itachi-kun." Minato responded, looking away from the blood red eyes of his wife._

_Swallowing the bile that rose to her throat, she turned to her dead brother. What had he done to deserve this? She thought to herself, staring into his eyes, widened in fear as he died. What had Itachi done to the proud warrior that had made him scared as he breathed his last? "Why?" She demanded staring into his blank eyes, her tears moistening the dried blood that covered his face as it slid down in tiny rivulets._

_"I don't know baby... I don't know." the Yondaime replied._

_Her throat hoarse from screaming, she never let go of her brother until her vision went black and she passed out into blissful unconsciousness._

II

Yukani stared at the scroll, letting out a palpable sigh before dropping it to the ground. She'd been researching some more on Fugaku's death, yet it had been to no avail, she hadn't found anything. Nothing that could ease her troubled mind, nor place blame on the Yondaime.

Could Minato order Fugaku's death and then hug his sister, his face innocent of the murder with bloodied hands?

She had so many regrets in life, her nii-san's death had been at the top. But her failure as a mother, that too had left a jagged wound in her chest, because rather than embracing her son Naruto for what he was, she banished him from her presence. She had even convinced his own father to join her in the emotional scarring they left on Naruto.

Because neither the Yondaime nor her could escape the ghost of Uzumaki Kushina, a pale, translucent manifestation that lingered in Naruto's essence, despite the blood of warriors that flowed through his veins.

She hadn't always been a bad mother to him, but Fugaku's death had unsettled her, to the point that she had literally had no one to vent towards, except the remainder of Kushina, the one person she hated the most.

Sighing softly, she looked up from the floor to see her son Kakashi peering cautiously at her. "Ohayo Kashi-kun." Yukani chirped cheerily, masking the underlying rage with a false smile that even the Hyuugas wouldn't have been able to detect. It was enough to fool her son…

"Ohayo, kaa-chan." Kakashi replied, peering at her with electric blue eyes, before crinkling his lips into a small smile. "You've been up all night, you should rest those old bones of yours." Kakashi offered, his innocence beaming through the grin plastered to his childish face.

"I'm not that old, Kashi-kun. I'm only thirty four, that's not old." Yukani retorted, before rapping her knuckles across the top of his head, ruffling his wavy black hair.

"First step to acceptance is denial, kaa-chan, you should know that. Who are you kidding, you're ancient, Yukani-baba." Kashi replied, before wrapping his arms around his mother in a tight hug. The floral scent of his shampoo wafted through the air and lingered, Yukani inhaling its sweetness, before bending down and kissing her son on the forehead.

"Shut up kid…" Yukani replied. "Hey, go wake up your nii-chan, and if you get a chance, talk really loud, him and Sasuke got hammered last night." Yukani whispered with a sadistic grin.

Kakashi returned it with a mischievous smile of his own, completely patented. "Hai." He responded, before disappearing in a blur of black and blue.

II

"It is nearly time…" Pein murmured, his voice nearly quivering in excitement. "At the Chuunin Exam Finals, we shall make our move and capture the Kyuubi no Jinchiruuki, killing the Yondaime Hokage is a bonus."

"I can't wait… We'll make sure he goes out with a bang, yeah. The Yellow Flash shall die a death befitting of a Hokage, he'll go out with a bang." Deidara offered, a reverent smile forming on his face as the tongue located on his hand waggled about in anticipation.

"Foolish Deidara, only I will kill the Yondaime, you will take out the rest of Konoha. Do you not remember what the Yellow Flash did to your father? How easy it was for him to slice the throat of an S-ranked Iwa terrorist? You are nowhere near your father's level, no… I will kill the Hokage, but feel free to kill the son." Pein retorted with a cold, clinical cackle.

A blush rose to Deidara's cheek out of ire, he nearly lost control and glared at the leader, but Deidara remembered his place. Pein was absolutely right, Namikaze Minato had killed his father, the S-ranked terrorist in three seconds. So as his son, Deidara trained constantly, living a life full of hate with no appreciation for anything but art in the hopes of one day killing the man who took the only person important to him.

Itachi folded his arms in front of him and leveled his gaze to Deidara. "Foolish notions will do little but get you killed…" Itachi reprimanded him harshly, three tomoed Sharingan burning an imprint in Deidara's eyes.

Sighing softly and regaining composure, Deidara returned the glare. "Perhaps my goals are a lost cause, perhaps they are foolish notions, but I believe that arrogance is the deadlier of the two, you should watch yourself Itachi-sempai." Deidara retorted.

"Your statement in itself reveals exactly how foolish you truly are Deidara. Perhaps I am arrogant, but that is because I've never lost a fight, I cannot say the same for you, these eyes do not fool me, you are forever destined to be little more than a nuisance, one who will be replaced a much better counterpart all in due time."

It took all of Deidara's resolve not to blow him up where he stood.

"Silence, enough of this insubordination, it offends me. Train properly and ready yourselves for the destruction of Konoha."

III

"Nii-chan!" Kakashi bellowed out, knocking on his brother's door. There was no response, so Kakashi took initiative and stepped inside his brother's room. Civilian clothes and ninja clothing were strewn about and Naruto and Sasuke were laid out on the same bed, with Sasuke's chest pressed up against Naruto's back.

Giving a small grunt of disgust, Kakashi strode over to the bed and punched his brother in his stomach. "Rise and shine, nii-chan." Kakashi shouted cheerfully.

Naruto gave out a small groan and slowly awoke, shutting his eyes closed violently as sunlight filtered through his lenses. As he awoke, he realized there was a small amount of discomfort as something was pressed insistently against his back. "What the fuck?" Naruto grumbled angrily and turned his body to look at the offending part.

It turned out to be Sasuke's morning wood.

A large vein bulged on Naruto's forehead, before he roared out, "Sasuke!" Naruto leaped from his bed and drew a kunai deftly into his hands.

Sasuke awoke and noticed the swollen appendage, "Oh shit."

Electric blue eyes stared into onyx ones uncomfortably. "No shit, I told you back to back, not nut to butt you son of a bitch." Naruto yelled emphatically. Shrugging off the nausea, Naruto turned and looked at Kakashi. "Hey otouto, did kaa-san make breakfast, I could use a coffee about now." Naruto grumbled.

Kakashi nodded. "Yeah, I suggest you grab some coffee and ignore her, she's been reading some scrolls for the last couple of hours, and dad's been gone for a bit." Kakashi informed him, before giving Naruto a fox like smile, "Look I don't want to interrupt 'Brokeback Village' and all but do you think we'll be able to squeeze in some training nii-chan?" Kakashi continued.

Naruto scowled at his little brother. "Not today kid, maybe tomorrow, tousan's going to be training me as well as Jiraiya, and Kakashi-san is going to be training Sasuke. But I'll try to train you tomorrow, I promise." Naruto offered.

"Nii-chan, if it helps I'm really sorry about Anko up and leaving like that." Kakashi lamented sadly.

"Don't worry about it, I'm not." Naruto replied, plastering a fake smile on his face. "Hey, if you want some extra training, go find Iruka-sensei and ask him for some one on one training, he's actually a pretty good shinobi, you could learn a lot from him."

"Hai, Naruto-nii, how come you don't like Kakashi-ojisan? As far as I can remember you and him haven't been on good terms and you pretty much stay out of each other's way, I tried asking him but he pretty much ducks the question…"

"Ne, stop worry about such trivial things, Kashi-kun. Go find Iruka and train, I want you to better a better shinobi than me." Naruto replied.

"You know it nii-chan, I'm going to be better than you and Sasuke-teme combined." Kakashi responded enthusiastically, much to Sasuke's displeasure.

"Why do you call me teme all the time?" Sasuke asked, an eyebrow arched and a scowl pursing his lips.

"Cause nii-chan does it." Kakashi offered before exiting.

Naruto smiled softly at that, before walking towards his closet and searching for some training clothes to train in. Slipping on a white t-shirt with cut off sleeves and a red spiral on the back, he then put on some black ANBU assigned trousers before rolling it up to mid shin and covering the rest in bandages. Taking the bandages and wrapping them around each hand and arm, he tossed the roll to Sasuke. "You about ready to train uke?"

Sasuke grinned, "I'd say you'd be the uke, last night proved as much."

Naruto grimaced for a second before a cruel smile lit his face, "I really hope I get to fight you in the Chuunin exams…"

IV

"What's the status with Naruto?" Baki growled in Temari's face, sending spittle flying. "You know you have a part to do, it's vital to our mission here." When the kunoichi did not reply immediately, Baki caught her with an open handed slap.

Tears sprung to Temari's eyes and she wiped them away hastily. "I'm working on it, it's not easy though, and he's still in love with Anko."

"Why do you think God blessed you with a vagina stupid…? Use it, do whatever you have to do to get Naruto under your thumb, anything less is insubordination and if you fuck this up, Suna will no longer be a safe haven for you, daughter of the Yondaime Kazekage." Baki warned.

"I don't think..." Temari was cut off as a large, meaty hand was about to strike her again, but the blow never came.

Baki screamed in pain as Gaara stood in the distance, his arm outstretched towards Baki. Temari dimly noted that Baki's hand was encased in sand, crushing the digits under its strength. "I suggest you don't do that." Gaara spoke calmly, belying the anger in his voice.

"Forgive me Gaara-san." Baki responded, and the sand dispersed.

"Next time I will not be so quick to dish out forgiveness, so refrain from attacking my sister." Gaara replied.

"Hai." Baki grunted painfully, the thought of complying to the genin was a hard pill to swallow.

Temari stood to her feet before turning to Gaara. "I'm heading out, if I do not come back tonight, please don't panic brother, I'll be at the Namikaze's place." Temari spoke softly, bitter tears swelling in her eyes at the thought of finally giving up her virginity to Naruto.

Not that sleeping with him would be bad, but rushing sex with him to deceive him and then destroy his home…

Temari wasn't in love with the blonde enigma and duty called since the Wind Daimyo seemed to ignore them more and more with each day, but she felt so dirty. Was she little more than a whore using the tools that God gave her to lure the Namikaze in before slitting his throat?

And the fact that she kind of liked him only made it so much worse…

Jumping into the shower, she scrubbed her body until it was clean and pink, no matter how hard she scrubbed, it seemed as if the grime and dirt was still stuck to her body…

"_Put it in your fucking mouth, Temari…"_

"_That's right, don't bite…"_

"_We have to make sure Naruto thinks you're a virgin, so I guess I'll have to put it in the other hole, you stupid cunt…"_

"_Scream Temari, not even the Kazekage can save you now…not even your precious Naru-chan."_

Crying bitter tears and forcing down the awful bile that rose to her throat, she contemplated how great it'd be to take her life right there and then. The daily rapings would stop, and she wouldn't be around to watch her father attempt to destroy the alliance they had with Konohagakure.

One slash of the kunai and she'd be free of this world…

Wiping her tears from her eyes, she grabbed a towel and dried off her body, her flesh pink and sensitive from the scrubbing. Tying her hair in a single, spiky ponytail she slid into a set of white cotton panties and put a white bra on before sliding into a black battle kimono.

She had a duty to perform, and a 'husband' to seduce.

V

"Naruto-kun, we're not going to train today, we have been wearing you down ragged so today you'll get a day off, but be ready for tomorrow alright." Minato offered with a small smile on his lips as he ruffled his sixteen year old son's hair.

The scowl on Naruto's face let him know that they were far from good, but hopefully he'd make it up to him.

"Whatever… anything else tou-san?" Naruto bit off harshly, "Any other girlfriends of mines you want to run out of the village?"

Minato sighed and closed his eyes. He did deserve this much, if not more of Naruto's anger. "Naruto…"

"Don't, just don't… I have to get going." Naruto responded coldly, before turning and exiting the room.

"If only that kid knew…" Minato began, before leaning back in his seat and pulling out a cigarette. "Oh well, at least with Naruto gone I'll have some peace in hear for a bit…" Minato began before his door busted in again.

In entered Uchiha Yukani, and she was looking royally pissed.

"Kuso." Minato muttered under his breath. "How can I help you now, Yukani?" Minato continued, before lighting up a cigarette.

"I as the newly instated Council member and head of the Uchiha clan, demanded to know any secrets pertaining to the history of the Uchiha's." Yukani began harshly, before tossing a scroll at him.

"Yukani, you know damn well you can't be the wife of a Hokage as well as a Council Head, it's too much power, that's why there's laws…"

"Baka, check the scroll." Yukani snapped.

Minato unrolled the scroll, before his eyebrows arched and he stared at Yukani accusatorily. "A divorce order? Are you fucking serious?" Minato demanded, the thick smoke hanging heavy in the air like an aura.

"Yeah, pretty much. I gave you another heir like promised, and I think it's time we part ways, ne?" Yukani retorted, forcibly shutting her eyes to clench the tears that welled up. Her throat clenched up for a second and after taking a deep breath she stared into Minato's watery blue eyes.

"Why?" the Yondaime asked pathetically.

"Why not? You don't love me, I'm a grown ass woman, I deserve better than to be someone's second choice. My clan needs me, as well as Fugaku, you hid so much of the truth from me rather than telling me what happened…"

"Yukani…" Minato interjected.

"Shut up... fuck your excuses. How am I supposed to sleep in your bed knowing that you took my brother's life?" Yukani demanded, staring up at the ceiling, willing herself not to cry as memories fluttered about in her head.

"It's not like you think it is… Please let me explain…"

"You don't have a choice anymore Minato, stop wasting my time and tell me exactly what happened and sign the divorce order and we'll be done." Yukani shot back.

Resigning and accepting defeat, Minato took a deep sigh. "It all started…"

VI

"Naruto-kun…" Naruto heard his named being called in the background. Looking up from his sixth bowl of ramen, he turned around and saw his betrothed smiling at him. Giving her a small wave for her to accompany him, he looked into her green eyes.

"Temari, what's up?" Naruto asked, before yelling out for Teuchi-ojisan to make another bowl of miso pork ramen.

"Do you want to do something tonight, Naruto-kun?" Temari asked. "Since we are getting married after, perhaps we should go out on a date and get to know each other better." Temari offered.

"I don't know, I guess so. My dad cancelled training for today so I'm all yours." Naruto replied, flirting lightly.

"Really… I think I like that…" Temari whispered seductively before pulling him into a kiss, firmly pressing her lips against his.

It was so different from anything Naruto ever felt. It wasn't raw and intense like it was with Anko, but equally as good as she gently massaged his tongue with her own, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Not bad Temari, you could use some practice." Naruto joked lightly, before claiming her lips again.

Smiling against his lips, Temari enjoyed the kiss. Sure her duty called for her to betray and kill him in the end, but was it so wrong for her to enjoy it? Lord knew she actually liked Naruto and it'd hurt a bit when she'd dig the kunai into his neck, but they still had time.

Pulling back to breath, Temari stared into Naruto's electric blue eyes. " I don't ever want this to end." She whispered, clasping his calloused hand.

"Let's go to the movies…" Naruto offered, tossing up a few ryou on the counter to pay for the ramen.

VII

He lifted her up with ease, her toned legs spreading and wrapping around his back. He was far from a virgin, but never did he want a girl like he wanted her then. "I really like you Anko-chan." Arashi growled out and he laid her gently on the bed, before claiming her lips playfully as his insistent erection pressed against her inner thigh.

"Someone's ready to go…" Anko joked cheerfully, a small twinkle in her eyes.

"Yeah…" Arashi panted as he tore his shirt off in a hurry. "You're really hot Anko."

"I'm not complaining." Anko retorted, before grabbing the bulge in front of his jeans, as he squirmed in pleasure, writhing underneath her touch.

"Are you sure you want to do…"

He was cut off as a kunai was suddenly buried into his ribs, then rammed forcefully into his heart. He didn't have time to scream as a second kunai shot out and sliced through his jugular cleanly. In pain, he fell to his knees and gave Anko an accusatory glare, though too late as blood poured freely from his wounds, though he never got to speak as he fell face first, convincingly dead.

"Sorry kid, but you just aren't him." Anko lamented, standing up to get dressed.

AN: Sorry if it seems rushed, but this chapter gave me some serious writers block and my muse just wouldn't give in. I just got back from New Orleans and Texas this week and tried giving you guys another chapter. Let me know what you think…

Next time on The Road Less Taken: The real reason behind Uchiha Fugaku's death and Madera's rage at his son's assassination. Next chapter: A Madman's Plan…


	10. Memories of Betrayal

The Road Less Taken

Chapter 10: Memories of Betrayal

A/N: Sorry about the wait, my computer crashed after I was at about ten thousand words and I was pissed and hadn't written. I was actually tempted to start a new story, or even possibly continue Serpentine Savior but that's staying on hiatus for now. It was more or less a one shot that could be continued at one point and I was going through a booty call when I wrote that. Next project after this fic will be Equilibrium, a time travel fic or a Boy and His Master. That's a fic about Naruto growing up outside of the village with Jiraiya but nevertheless drop a line and let me know which you want to see. Requiem should be up in two weeks hopefully…

I

Anko swiftly pulled a kunai out of her coat, and was ready to slice Arashi's head off cleanly until the body dissolved into water, much to her surprise. Her eyes widened up and instinctively rolled out of the way, narrowly missing a kunai that would have entered her spinal column had she not moved.

"You didn't think it'd be that easy Anko-chan? I'm a chuunin, son of the Mizukage, and not to mention I have Uchiha blood coursing through my veins, I won't be beaten by some dumb bitch like you." Arashi growled out, forming his hand in the ram seal as his chakra flared up for a second, blue wisps of energy swirling around him, forming a formidable aura around him.

"Actually, I did." Anko replied.

Kazama Arashi's dark blue eyes sparkled for a second, his outrage and anger conveyed within his blue orbs. "Sorry to disappoint, Anko-chan." He retorted bitterly, before flaring up his chakra once more and whispering, "Sharingan." Dark blue began swirling about, before turning red with three tomoes, spinning vividly in his eyes.

"Don't take it personal kid." Anko replied, before sending chakra to her feet and bursting off the ground, shooting towards him quickly. He telegraphed her movement and her next attack but found he wasn't fast enough to move out of the way as Anko's sandal heel connected with his face, sending him stumbling backwards.

"Seneijashu." Anko bit out, sending snakes shooting out of her outstretched hands. The snakes flew towards Arashi's neck, but he quickly sidestepped the serpents, reaching behind him and pulling out a katana and bringing it towards them in an upwards arc.

Anko's brain began formulating several options on how to take on Arashi. Normally one was supposed to run from a Sharingan user, especially one with a fully matured Sharingan. But she couldn't afford to run, her mission was clear. Pulling out a kunai and twirling it around he r fingers in a dramatic fashion.

"You'll die for your betrayal, Anko-chan. It's a shame that a body like that has to go to waste, I actually liked you." Arashi confessed sadly, before glaring at her with blood red eyes.

"I don't think I will." The Special Jounin replied evenly, reaching into her shuriken holster, before sending five shuriken whizzing at him. "Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." The five shuriken multiplied into fifty and flew towards him.

Arashi saw the movements of the shuriken and adjusted his body accordingly, slipping in between them and sprinting towards Anko. "You're done bitch." Arashi threatened dangerously, parrying the last of the shuriken with his katana and moving towards her.

"Kage Shuriken no Jutsu success." She retorted, holding a set of ninja wire in each hand.

Arashi's eyes widened before going through his own set of hand seals. "Kirigakure no Jutsu." He yelled out and a mist began to cover the room.

Anko yanked back on the wire and the shuriken that had been attached suddenly shot towards Arashi, with another set of shuriken hiding under its shadow. One hundred shuriken attached to the wires suddenly closed in and Arashi let out a scream as they connected as the ninja wire wrapped around him, a hundred shuriken digging into his body.

Anko grinned, despite that she couldn't see the platinum blonde, and his scream was enough to let her drop her guard for a second. Releasing the wire and deftly pulling a kunai out of her sleeve, she charged into the mist, ready to finish him off.

The smell of his blood tainted the air with its reek, metallic tang and it was easy enough to discern his location. Gripping the kunai tightly, she quickly decapitated the Kiri chuunin. Panting slightly, she backed away only to have a kunai rammed into her spine, and a blood curdling scream escaped her mouth before she could stop it.

"Mizu Bunshin success."

II

"Hey guys, how about we hit up a bar?" Sakura offered to the group. Naruto, Temari, Sasuke, Ino, Shikamaru, Chouji, and Lee had been hanging out all afternoon after accidentally meeting up at Ichiraku's. Afterwards they had caught a few movies, and then gone to the beach for a bit to hang out. Only Lee and Chouji had actually gotten in the water, Naruto and Temari had been too busy making out on the sand to do little more than that.

Sakura and Ino had been posted up talking gossip about them while Sasuke had worked on his water walking technique. Shikamaru had simply complained all afternoon about how troublesome everything was.

"I cannot Sakura. It is unyouthful for me to partake in underage drinking. I will head back and find guy and rekindle my flames of youth." Lee replied, giving the group a small nod before heading out.

"Freak." Ino whispered when Lee was out of earshot.

"I have to go, my dad wants to teach me some family jutsu. That, and I don't want to miss dinner, my mom bitches if I do, what a drag." Shikamaru complained before disappearing as well.

"Dinner sounds good about now." Chouji said as his mouth watered up with all the possibilities.

"You just stuffed your face not too long ago piggy." Ino cried out in outrage.

"But not enough. Plus, I'm too big boned to be drinking." Chouji retorted angrily. "I don't want to get any bigger."

"I seriously doubt you could." Ino bit off.

"So I guess it's going to be me and you fighting over Sasuke again Ino-pig, just like old times since Naruto's going to be sucking Temari-san's face all night." Sakura said with a smirk on her face.

Sasuke groaned loudly, that was just what he needed.

"I resent that." Naruto said, breaking off his kiss with Temari. Sakura arched her eyebrow at him, and one look into her emerald eyes was enough to shut Naruto up for a bit.

"Can we just go and drink?" Sasuke asked, running his fingers through his mane of jet black hair.

"Hold up alcoholic." Naruto replied and Sasuke gave him a glare. "What, Uchiha's exempt from being alcoholics, too beneath you?" Naruto asked with a sneer, but his Sasuke knew his best friend was only jesting.

"Let's go." Ino chimed in, agreeing with Sasuke full heartedly.

Sasuke groaned once more.

"I thought your dad was going to train you?" Temari asked, giving Naruto a sly smile.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Hey Sasuke-chan, you're on your own with the girls tonight, I've got some special training with the Hokage." Naruto spoke with an air of aloofness.

Sasuke raised his eyebrow at him, and Naruto tried his hardest to look innocent. "Baka, we're not stupid." Sakura yelled before clubbing him upside his head.

"Jeez Sakura-chan, you hit harder than most guys I know. I guess I know who'll be the seme in your relationships." Naruto replied, giving grabbing Temari around the waist and disappearing in a flash.

"NARUTO!" Sakura screeched out shrilly and Sasuke honestly hopped his ears weren't bleeding.

Naruto stopped at the Namikaze estate. "I don't mean to be perverted, but you can stay the night if you want." Naruto offered to his future wife. Temari gave him a small smile before nodding.

"Hai." She responded before pulling him in for a kiss. "What about your parents?"

"I like to think that they have selective hearing." Naruto replied, suddenly pressing his lean figure against hers as the blood began to flow south. Temari noticed the beginnings of an erection and grinded against it softly.

"Got to love the selective memory." Temari smirked, before breaking off the kiss and following Naruto inside, the man she'd been ordered to betray, to kill. If only she didn't have to…

After giving her a small tour of the house the two went upstairs to Naruto's room, and Temari closed the door behind her. "What about Kakashi-san?"

"He'll probably be hanging out with Konohamaru training somewhere." Naruto replied. "Nervous much?"

"A little…I'm a virgin, Naruto-san."

"We don't have to if you don't want to." Naruto started, but Temari pulled him to the bed, before wrapping her legs around him, her kimono riding up some and exposing some more of her toned legs.

"I want to very much."

"Shouldn't we wait till the wedding and all?" Naruto asked.

"Whatever makes you happy." Temari whispered before bringing his face down for another kiss, capturing his bottom lip between her own and sucking it softly intentionally, serving only to fuel his desire for her.

"Let's wait then. The wedding is a month away, we can hold out until then." Naruto whispered into her mouth, before letting his tongue dart in.

"I need you Naruto, right now." Temari panted into his mouth.

"I'm not going to take your virginity, but that doesn't mean we can't have fun." Naruto smirked against her lips coyly, his hand sliding between her thighs.

Moments later, she climaxed hard, loud enough to where selective hearing just didn't cut it for Kakashi.

III

"What happened to Fugaku?" Yukani demanded.

"All business huh… Before you can fully grasp what happened, tell me, exactly how much do you know about the foundation of Konoha?" Minato replied, pulling out a cigarette out of his jounin vest and lighting it up with his silver Zippo.

"Not much more than what they taught us in the academy. Just that Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama were close friends and leaders of their clans and merged to form Konohagakure no Sato under Hi no Kuni." Yukani spoke diplomatically, as if quoting some written text.

"Yeah, straight bullshit. That stuff they taught you in the academy was lies. Konoha was founded on blood and Madara and the Shodaime were bitter enemies." Minato retorted with a sarcastic chuckle.

"Just what exactly does that have to do with Fugaku-nii's death?" Yukani demanded desperately.

"I'd probably get there if you'd let me finish." Minato stated with cold indifference. Yukani shut up quickly and let him continue. "Years ago, eighty years ago to be exact, there were no five nations, there was just one big land full of several clans. Clans would get hired by whomever, only problem was that due to some of the clan's unique abilities and kekkei genkai's, they were chose predominantly over others, causing ire amongst the smaller clans and starting clan wars.

"The biggest clans at the time were the Senju, the Uchiha, the Hyuuga, and the Namikaze. War began spreading, the Uchihas began fighting the Senju for clan dominancy and the Hyuuga and Namikaze were attacked by other clans, smaller ones like the Kaguya, the Yamanaka, the Nara and Akimichis. The first Fire Daimyo tired of the war and tried to resolve it by forming a ninja nation, the foundations of Konohagakure no Sato. As I said earlier, each clan had unique abilities that set them off from others, case in point, the Namikaze had unreal brute strength and easy adaptation to ninjutsu of all sorts. We were the first clan to be asked to join Konohagakure no Sato and while we were a strong clan, we were for the most part docile, and peace loving.

"Wanting peace for everybody, the Namikaze's extended the offer to the Uchiha and the Senju as well as the Hyuuga and the smaller branches that would now take foundation in Konoha. They accepted and agreed to meet at a convention to work out the kinks on who would become leader and such, but for all the wrong reason. While the Namikaze were peace loving, we were the most feared clan in the history due to our connections to the Maiban empire and the original wielder of the Rin'negan, so at the convention all the clans who would become Konoha rebelled against the Namikaze and slaughtered us to the point of extinction, hoping to cleanse the land of the most powerful clan ever." Minato spoke, his voice becoming haggard, as if he had been around at the time.

"All the clans rebelled?" Yukani asked, her eyes watering up in sympathy.

"Yeah, they slaughtered us like cattle wiping us off the face of Hi no Kuni, and the last of our kind ran away to the new villages who were starting out such as Amegakure, Kirigakure, and others. As you know the leaders of the Uchiha clan was Uchiha Madara, easily the most powerful Uchiha due to the fact that he had the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan…"

"Sorry to interrupt but what is the Eternal Mangekyou as you called it? I've never heard of it." Yukani asked.

"You probably wouldn't have… It's a well kept secret usually passed down from male heir to male heir. The EMS as I'll call it is an upgraded version of the Mangekyou, stage two of the Sharingan." Minato began. Seeing Yukani's frown of confusion, he elaborated, "There are several versions of the Sharingan, the one tomoed Sharingan, still in the developmental stages, the two tomoed, which is the one most Uchihas get to. Thirdly is the fully matured, three tomoed Sharingan, not too many Uchihas have actually got their. The first to unlock the Mangekyou, the kaleidoscope Sharingan was Madara and his brother Izuna, which helped them maintain their ground against the powerful Senju clan. According to the scrolls the brothers left behind, the Mangekyou can only be obtained by the self committed murder of your closest friend. Despite gaining such a power, it had one major drawback besides the constant drain of chakra, it blinds.

"It is unknown if it happens as a punishment for the murder of one's best friend to gain such a power, but the Mangekyou slowly eats away at your retinas and destroys your vision. Madara flaunted his Mangekyou to the Senju, relying on it heavily until he found out the price to be paid, which leads us to the Eternal Mangekyou. The only way to achieve it is to kill your own brother and take his eyes, combining both Mangekyous and the darkness would fade away. Fearing his loss of power, Madara killed Izuna and snatched his eyes gaining the final stage of Sharingan." Minato explained.

"I still don't get…"

"After the betrayal to the Namikaze clan, the clans needed a leader, the 'Kage' of the village and both Uchiha Madara and Hashirama applied for the position now that the Namikaze were out of the way. As you know, Hashirama had gotten the job, and Madara had been angered. He felt betrayed by the Uchihas, who refused to join his campaign, calling him a monster who had killed his brother in order to take his eyes and gain the EMS. Betrayed, Madara left the village and sought more power, and got what he wanted. He found that his hateful eyes could control the Kyuubi no Yoko, and controlling it, he returned to Hi no Kuni to fight the Shodaime at the Valley of the End, where he supposedly died.

"Years after this, the few remaining Namikaze's had joined forces under Amegakure and the leader over there called Hanzou. I was young, too young to remember, but my family had moved to Amegakure only to be slaughtered by Hanzou and his shinobi who feared the strength of the Namikaze just as the Uchiha had. As the war with Konoha continued, Jiraiya stumbled upon me and pitied me, bringing me back to Hi no Kuni where one day I'd grow up to become a student of his, as well as his unofficial son. I was raised here, becoming an elite jounin quickly as my Namikaze strength was unmatched by anyone, and finally I was chosen by the Sandaime as his replacement, but the Council feared the repercussions, fearing I was too bitter because in essence Konoha slaughtered my clan and I was its only survivor."

"What happened then?"

Minato flicked his cigarette outside and pulled out another one and lit it up quickly, taking in a deep drag and blowing smoke in Yukani's face much to her dismay. "They leaked my family's information to the Uchiha and the Hyuuga and they tried on numerous occasions to assassinate me. So the Sandaime kept the position for a bit longer, and when the enemy heard of a possible civil war on the breakout, Iwagakure attacked Konoha, and the same people who tried to have me killed wanted me as their weapon. Eager to prove my allegiance to Konoha, I slaughtered Iwagakure's troops nearly single-handedly with the use of the Hiraishin no Jutsu. The war ended and I became Hokage as reward, but that didn't settle well with the Uchiha who already feared retaliation. Since I took office they've been planning a coup d'tat, hoping to take me out before I could take them out.

"Their treachery reached the power hungry Uchiha Madara, and when he found out about the existence of a single Namikaze, using the Kyuubi he attacked while remaining low key. The Council thought he was dead and blamed it secretly on the Uchihas which had been planning to overtake the position of Hokage, namely your nii-san."

"Nii-san would never have!" Yukani retorted, snarling.

"Yes, he would have. I tried saving him, I honestly did, but it was too late. Uchiha Itachi was sent to the ANBU by the Uchiha to serve as a spy among our ranks but instead he fed me information on the current coup d'tat lead by your brother. Already suspicious of the Uchiha due to the Kyuubi attack, Danzou and the village council ordered the execution of Uchiha Fugaku by Itachi to serve as a message to the clan and it worked, they settled down and maintained the police force."

"That's bullshit." Yukani argued weakly.

"Really, why do you think Fugaku accepted our marriage? He was going to use you against me as a spy. Shamed by his actions, Itachi-kun parted ways with the village only asking that incase one day there'd be a need to finish off the clan, I'd spare his otouto Sasuke. You're brother was a traitor Yukani, mislead by arrogance and prejudice against a clan that had been slaughtered years prior. He was no better than Uchiha Madara and the quicker you realize it, the better." Minato replied, taking another drag off his cigarette.

Yukani was seething, teeth bared, and knuckles clenched tightly. "You're the reason nii-chan died?" she accused angrily as her tears began to spill.

"Am I really to blame for the fact that your ancestors and the Senju exterminated my clan? That despite the fact that all I wanted to do was help the village I had assassination attempts daily? Your brother was a terrorist and nothing more, he reveled in prejudice and hoped to do what Madara hadn't finished, become Hokage. I know you loved him dearly, but baby he was using you. Using you as a spy for me, and almost used you to gain the Eternal Mangekyou, he had already killed his best friend but he wasn't one of the few to unlock it. If he had, he would have came after your eyes in the end." Minato explained.

"Minato, I don't ever want to see you again." Sitting up from her chair, Yukani turned and left the office without another word.

Sighing to himself, Minato wondered why he had become Hokage in the first place. He remembered the briefing he had with Anko six months ago.

oOo

"_Hokage-sama, you have to listen to me?" Anko pleaded with him, grabbing him by the lapels of his jacket. Surprised by her aggressiveness and lack of formality, he gave her a nod to continue. "Remember the mission where I found out that Zabuza might join the Akatsuki and then you gave me this mission to find out what Zabuza had decided. He declined the offer, he's too busy trying to find a way to become Mizukage, but while Zabuza and Kisame were arguing I was paying attention.." Anko panted for a second, before continuing, "Apparently Uchiha Madara is still alive and posing as the Sandaime Mizukage, and he has a son to boot with a fully matured Sharingan."_

_Minato's eyes widened for a second. "How sure are you?"_

"_One hundred percent positive. While I can't identify the Mizukage as Madara, the son did have a fully matured Sharingan and the Mizukage wears an orange mask to hide his face, going by the name of…"_

"_Kazama Tobi, ne?" _

"_Yeah…" Anko replied, taking back another shot._

"_Fuck, I'll have to bring this up to the Council, great job Anko on the information." Minato commented, before going through a specific set of hand seals and yelling out, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu."_

_There was a poof of smoke and Gamakichi, son of Gamabunta arrived. "What's going on, oyabun?" the six foot toad asked._

"_Find Jiraiya and tell him he's been summoned to see the Hokage as soon as possible."_

_oOo_

"_What's going on Minato?" Jiraiya asked, giving the waitress a sidelong glance. All he knew was that he had been traveling for the last week to see the Hokage who had summoned him so erratically._

"_Mitarashi Anko had been on a stealth mission in Kirigakure finding out more information on the Akatsuki and their plans with Naruto and apparently one of their members is none other than Uchiha Madara." Minato replied as calmly as he could, while scanning the area for intruders._

"_You've got to be shitting me." Jiraiya snorted._

"_I'm pretty fucking serious sensei. Madara's been posing as Kazama Tobi, Sandaime Mizukage of Kirigakure." Minato barked out, giving his teacher a slight snarl._

"_How come none of my spies found any of that out?" Jiraiya asked incredulously. _

"_Mitarashi-san may have been mistaken, but I honestly doubt that. She's one of the best jounin I have when it comes to information gathering. That's where you come into play sensei, I need you and Tsunade to get all the information you can get on the Mizukage and his son."_

_oOo_

"_You were right about Madara, Minato-kun." Jiraiya stated morosely, entering the Hokage's office without knocking._

"_Fuck… this complicate things." The Yondaime stated, before running his fingers through his hair, pondering what to do next._

"_I have intel on several members of the Akatsuki, for example, Madara's the leader of the Akatsuki or second in command. Next there's Uchiha Itachi to deal with…the kid who murdered his best friend and father…" Jiraiya said, shaking his head in disgust._

"_I'm not worried about him."_

"_Why not?" Jiraiya demanded._

"_Itachi and I have some sort of agreement. What he did on that night was all under orders of Danzou and the Village Council." Minato admitted._

_Jiraiya arched his eyebrow at Minato. "I don't even want to know right now. Anyway, Deidara, A-ranked terrorist of Iwagakure is also in the group, Sasori of the Red Sands and two guys who've only been referred to as the Immortals are in as well. I've gotten word from my connects that the Leader, or the most important member is in Amegakure right now, and if the rumors are true, he's the one who killed Hanzou, the previous leader."_

"_We're going to need some information on him as well. Do you think you can handle it sensei?" Minato asked hopefully._

"_Come on kid, Jiraiya is no liar. I'll get your intel right after I get back from the honeymoon with Tsunade." Jiraiya confessed, his cheeks flushing at the prospect of finally having Tsunade in bed._

"_You two fossils finally got hitched, I'd never thought I'd see the day." Minato retorted with a small chuckle. The two men stood up and embraced in a small hug. "Stay safe sensei." Minato finished and Jiraiya disappeared in a cloud of smoke._

_oOo_

"_Tsunade's dead…" Minato stared at the broken man in front of him, the man who he still called sensei out of respect. Tears stung his eyes as the man who he looked up to as his father clung to him desperately, sobbing loudly, over racked with grief at having lost his wife after only being married a month._

_Minato deep down knew the pain, he had lost Kushina._

"_I've loved her all my life, and when she was finally mine for a month, Pein took her away. We were nothing to him, nothing, two of the Sannin and he took us apart like nothing. Pein destroyed my arm and stabbed me in the throat and Tsunade used all her strength to heal me, leaving her vulnerable… he killed her Minato…"_

"_We'll make him pay sensei. On everything I love, I won't die until Pein's dead, do you hear me?"_

"_She's dead." Jiraiya ignored him as if he couldn't hear him, his fragile mind still in the middle of Amegakure where his wife lay broken._

_oOo_

"_You know Sunagakure's going to betray you right. They don't intend to actually let Temari marry Naruto, you should tell him before he gets attached." Jiraiya pointed out astutely. _

"_I know, but in order to strike them where it hurts, they can't know that I know, and Naruto's not the brightest kid, he'd tip them off accidentally. We're going to have to think of a ruse to separate Anko and Naruto while he woos the Kazekage's daughter, leaving him vulnerable at the Chuunin exams where I'll go in for the kill." Minato confessed._

"_You scare me at times." Jiraiya stated truthfully. "You're almost always so peaceful, but when the time calls you can be particularly ruthless and vicious."_

"_Such is the job of a Kage." Minato muttered unapologetically._

"_I know you got a lot on your plate with Suna but Orochimaru's forming an alliance with them and if he does, expect them both to attack at the Chuunin Finals in an attempt to wipe out the village."_

"_I know, two for one." Minato said grinning, refusing to let the news worry him, or take away his happiness._

"_What's with you, you got laid last night?" Jiraiya asked._

"_Nah. You have no idea how proud of Naruto I am, he's becoming stronger by the day, and he can even manipulate fire into the Rasengan and his taijutsu. He can summon the toads perfectly, he'll become better than me." Minato said proudly._

"_All that's left is to teach him the Hiraishin and we're good to go." Jiraiya said seriously. "That and some good old fashioned Senjutsu training and he'll be right on his way to Hokage."_

"_I love that kid so much more than he knows." Minato said offhandedly. _

"_Then maybe he should know."_

"_What? What are you talking about?" Minato asked._

"_Just because I wasn't a good father to you doesn't mean you should do the same baka." Jiraiya replied haughtily._

_oOo_

"_Anko, I need you to break up with Naruto for now. You're going on a SS-ranked mission to assassinate the son of the Mizukage and return to Konoha safely and with leaving evidence that would make Konoha look like a bad guy."_

"_Hai, but how do you think Naruto will take it?" Anko asked._

"_Not good, but he's a strong kid. I wouldn't worry too much about my boy, he's the next Hokage after all." Minato bragged uncharacteristically "So in the meantime I'm going to have people believe I'm against your relationship with Naruto, I'd fill him in but he's too straightforward with information. He'd immediately confront the Sand delegation and that's one thing we can't have, they have to honestly believe Naruto's heartbroken and that Temari's getting to him."_

"_Hai, understood Hokage-sama."_

"_Assassinate target Kazama Arashi by any means necessary and maintain your cover in Kirigakure until you receive word from Jiraiya-sama, do you understand Anko?"_

"_Yes Hokage-sama."_

"_The future of Konoha relies heavily on how well you can go undercover."_

"_I know and will pass the mission." Anko retorted, none too happy with her mission. She didn't mind assassinating Arashi, but breaking Naruto's heart, she never thought she'd be put in a situation where she'd have to do that._

"_Hai, you're dismissed Mitarashi-san until further notice."_

_***End Flashback***_

IV

Arashi cackled as he stood over the broken body of Mitarashi Anko. "Now all I have to do is report this to my father…"

"Can't let you do that." A voice interrupted him and pain seared across his body. "Seneijashu." The voice spoke as snakes bit into his body. Using all his strength, he pushed off the ground with chakra and spun in midair launching his own set of shuriken at the attacker.

It was Anko.

"But you're dead." He replied shakily. Arashi stared at where her body once was, and saw the body dissolve into mud.

"For a wielder of the Sharingan you're pretty stupid." Anko reprimanded, a maniacal sneer on her face. "When you used the Kirigakure jutsu to blind me, you didn't think I'd realize how blind you'd be as well. Just like you did, I created a clone and sent that one into the mist to chase you out. A shinobi must use all tools at his disposal, one being eyesight. If I can't see you, do you think I'd jump in headfirst into the mist with you." Anko chastised.

Arashi cursed under his breath. She did have a point after all. "It's of no consequence." Arashi stated boldly. As he was about to go through a set of hand seals, Anko vanished from sight and appeared in front of him, fist cocked back. He didn't have time to brace himself and the punch landed, smashing him clean across the face and sending him crashing into the wall.

"You probably shouldn't have brought me to your house so far away from the center of the village where dear daddy could help you." Anko replied laughing.

"Stupid bitch, we had ANBU tagging you the whole time." Arashi confessed angrily.

Anko's eyes widened dramatically. "Nooo…I'm so busted. Dipshit, let me let you in on a secret, there all dead." Anko replied sarcastically.

Arashi now had a frightful look upon his face. "You fucking bitch… you don't have the gall to kill me."

Anko sprinted forward and Arashi stood up, Sharingan eyes ready to copy her movement. "It's useless if you can't see me." Anko chastised once more, before using the Shunpo, accelerating her speed even faster.

Before Arashi could move, she crossed the distance between them and launched a kunai at him. Arashi blocked the kunai, but by then it was already too late, there was no distance between him and Anko and she stabbed his left hand with a kunai pinning him to a wall, then pinning his right hand with another one as he froze momentarily in pain.

"I'm going to kill you." Arashi declared, trying not to scream from the pain.

"I sincerely doubt it. Those kunai that are holding you in place have bomb seals attached all around them. The instant I activate them or the instant you move they go off, blowing you apart, so I suggest you do as I fucking say." Anko growled out.

"What do you want?" Arashi asked fearfully.

"I want information on your father and the Akatsuki." Anko asked.

"I'd rather die bitch." Arashi bellowed out, ripping his hands free from the wall.

The explosion that came next rocked the whole building.

A/N: Sorry about the wait once more. Please let me know what you thought of this chapter, I've seriously shortened it and rushed it to make sure you got it on time. Next chapter, Yukani's reflection on Fugaku's death, the aftermath of the explosion, some father and son time, and a guest appearance by none other than the Sandaime and Ero-Sennin, plus the start of the Chuunin Finals.


	11. The Road Less Taken

**The Road Less Taken**

**Chapter Eleven: The Road Less Taken**

**AN: Hey folks, sorry for the wait. To Innerstruggle88, this chapters for you. Four more chapters to go until the end of this fic…**

I

Temari has always been a misunderstood kunoichi. Her regal beauty hidden well behind a dark veil of violence and wind maelstroms. Due to the fact that she indeed was the daughter of the Kazekage and a female, she trained relentlessly, harnessing her mastery over the wind element with a war fan, promising to become stronger than her father herself one day. Perhaps if her brother wasn't a crazy, homicidal maniac his first fourteen years, everyday wouldn't of been a life and death struggle for her.

But they had been, and Temari was stronger for it.

She truly was a paradox…

She had prided herself for so long in her ability to distance herself emotionally from her targets whenever necessary, yet she was failing herself and her village as she laid in bed with Namikaze Naruto. Perhaps it was because growing up as the daughter of a Kazekage she hadn't had much interaction with boys her age and she was simply new to the process. Perhaps she felt vulnerable because Baki had forced himself inside her, leaving her a virgin where it counted. Naruto had always been the epitome of a gentleman with her, with the exception of their first meeting.

After months of abuse at Baki's hand, Naruto's treatment of her only left her weaker, destroying the possibility of her using apathy for his assassination. How could she kill him and move on like it never happened?

After all that they shared, even if most of it wasn't physical, how would she feel as blood poured out of his slit throat?

Looking over at the cause of her turmoil, she couldn't help but smile as she laid her gaze upon the sleeping Namikaze. Unable to help herself, she leaned over and placed a kiss on his lips, chaste and gentle without waking him up.

Could she even kill him?

Last night he'd been so perfect, despite her feigned sluttiness(much to her disgust), he hadn't really taken advantage of her. He refused to take her virginity until "marriage", hoping to build the moment up. Would he even survive the attack? Knowing how irrevocably turned on she had been, he serviced her gladly, without even asking anything in return.

Not that she would have turned him down if he had…

Snuggling in closer and leaning into the crook of his neck, she breathed in his scent, relishing the feeling of his lean body against hers. Closing her eyes, she smiled gently as Naruto's arm draped over her stomach, and he pulled her against him. Kissing him one last time, the rose from Sunagakure fell asleep.

II

Yukani was an unusually misunderstood woman. As head of the Uchiha Clan, not only did she have time for pleasantries and usually resorted to violence quickly. She honestly couldn't help that she had inherited the legendary Uchiha temper. She liked to think she was a half decent mother, despite the popular beliefs of the village and Hokage-sama himself.

Hmph… like he was anyone to talk.

She was one for two when it came to her children. Kakashi had been a success while Naruto had been a complete failure. Her treatment of him anyway… There was no question that she loved him, despite his flaws. But she thought she had done the best she could, her own childhood had been rough. Tough love was exclusively patented by the Uchiha clan, there were no warm moments excluding the ones that she shared with nii-chan. Perhaps she'd been reliving her nightmare childhood and focused tough love on Naruto, ignoring the pain in his teary blue eyes.

As he grew older, her distaste and disdain for him grew, despite the maternal love she held for him. A lonely puberty had caused him to display more of Kushina's traits, becoming a loud mouthed kid who respected nobody, not even the Hokage. That's when she knew it had been too late to ever reconcile things between them. Her disdain grew and Naruto cared less with each passing year, becoming more disrespectful than ever and further from the Uchiha heir she had stupidly dreamed him to be.

Because she had actual given birth to Kakashi, perhaps it was easier to love him. Maybe it was because he actually displayed traits of the Uchiha. Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, he learned the ways of the Uchiha, learning their taijutsu and ninjutsu and becoming chuunin level by the time he was eight.

She wasn't going to offer an excuse for the preferential treatment, it was too late to change things.

Leaning her nose down to the line of white powder, she snorted hastily, before laying back on the couch.

Letting the drug take effect, she found it funny that no one knew of her addiction. Her aggressive behavior had started after her father's death, she was constantly angry at the world and the cocaine didn't help.

Slumping against the couch, she giggled…

Naruto's parents are a nicotine addicted Hokage and a coke junkie Clan leader…

_Cocaine's a hell of a drug…_

III

The explosion rocked the building…

That was the last thing Anko remembered. Opening up her eyes she stared into the honey brown eyes of someone familiar. "You're going to be groggy for a bit, the explosion fucked with you pretty bad due to your proximity to the initial blast." A soft voice spoke gently.

"Where am I at?" Anko asked, struggling to form the words through her lips.

"Don't talk to much, you're exhausted enough as it is." The woman spoke again. "By the way, we're in Nami no Kuni. Once you're healed we're headed back to Konoha, and incase you don't know who I am, I'm Tsunade of the Sannin, wife to Jiraiya of the Sannin."

Mitarashi Anko passed out in blissful unconsciousness.

…

She awoke several hours later, standing up briskly despite the pain, the rumbling in her stomach letting her know she needed some sustenance as soon as possible. She wished Naruto was here, he'd hold her and tell her he loved her with soft fingers trailing her face and other areas. Tsunade-sama, a well known gambler, did not have soft hands, Anko remembered that much.

"What are you doing up?" Tsunade asked sharply. The busty blonde strode over to the Snake Sannin's apprentice and glared at her. "You haven't recovered completely yet, you should rest." Tsunade pointed out.

"I will, but first off, I'm hungry and need to eat. The next is that I need to know what the hell's going on. Last time I checked Tsunade-sama, you were killed in action and the old coot's been grieving and always getting drunk back in Konoha." Anko said flippantly, not caring that the Slug Sannin had arched her eyebrow when Anko called Jiraiya an old coot.

"As you know after me and Jiraiya's marriage, we had gone to Amegakure to check on the possible leader of Akatsuki. Turns out this guy Pain had killed Hattori Hanzou, a shinobi that the Sannin themselves couldn't beat together. We fought Pain after being discovered, and Jiraiya had been about to die when I used the last of my chakra to heal him. Pain took advantage of it and impaled me, tossing my body into the lake. Jiraiya and Pain both thought I died and Jiraiya barely escaped."

"How'd you survive?" Anko asked, tilting her head to look at the Sannin.

"As I was dying, nearly a hundred feet underwater, I utilized a kinjutsu that I've never used before. It's called Mitosis Regeneration." She explained, pointing at the purple diamond on her forehead. "Mitosis Regeneration is a technique that can regenerate fatal injuries by using chakra to speed up the process of cell division, which triggers the whole regenerating bit.

"I escaped the lake but I couldn't get to Jiraiya in time because Pain found me out. It took some time but finally I made it out of Amegakure. I remembered a conversation with Pain during our fight and decided to head to Kirigakure to spy on the Mizukage. And to my surprise, who do I catch in Kirigakure? So I followed you and hid a bit during your fight. I heard the explosion and headed in to find you bleeding, and nearly dead." Tsunade explained, turning to the side to grab a small saucer to pour her sake in.

"How bad was it?" Anko asked.

"I guess you distanced yourself away from him for it to be non-fatal, but even then you had third degree burns and had a few kunai buried into you. Probably from a trap set up during your fight. I showed up, dragged your sorry carcass out of there and summoned up a few slugs to get us out of there and into Nami." Tsunade finished, her tone a tad bit sardonic.

"Well thanks, Tsunade-sama." Anko bit out.

"If you wanna do me a favor, just heal up. The Chuunin finals are in three days and I'd like to make it back for that."

"Hai!"

IV

Naruto opened his groggy eyes and realized that Temari was gone, the lack of warmth where warmth had occupied it earlier gave it away. Smiling to himself, he sat upright in his bed, before leaping off and landed stealthily on the wooden floor. The house was eerily quiet, meaning that there was no way in hell his brother Kakashi was here. The raven haired prankster was notoriously a loud mouth at his house. Slipping himself into a pair of jeans and a button up black shirt with black getas, he headed downstairs to see what awaited him.

"Naru-chan!" a male voice called out.

Blue orbs swiveled to the source of the sound. He hadn't been called Naru-chan in years and he wasn't going to let it start up again now. Cerulean eyes landed on gray, spiked hair, and a mischievous eye smile of one Hatake Kakashi. Hitai-ate still sideways as usual to cover up his Sharingan eye and scar, Kakashi looked pretty different in civilian clothes. He had on a set of black cargo pants and a dark blue thermal.

"You really shouldn't call me that, Hatake-san." Naruto informed him pointedly, before attending to his houseguest. "Would you like something to drink while I get Kashi-kun?" Naruto offered, giving the jounin a sideways glance.

"I'm not here for that baka. I'm actually here for you Naruto." Kakashi said, shocking the jinchiruuki of the Kyuubi.

"What do you want with me?" Naruto demanded stoutly, his ire rising. It was common knowledge that Naruto did not get along with the perverted jounin. Kakashi had always had a place in Minato's heart, while Naruto did not, leaving Naruto bitter against the jounin in his childhood.

"Calm down, Naruto… Your father Minato asked me to tell you to come with me and meet him out at Crazy Horse to catch a couple of drinks. We're going to celebrate you making Chuunin a little early." Kakashi replied levelly, giving Naruto another one of his patented eye winks.

"Gomen nasai." Naruto offered apologetically. "It's just its weird, seeing you here in your civilian clothes and stuff." Naruto continued, before extending his hand to Kakashi.

Kakashi smirked underneath his mask and shook the teen's hand. "Let's go… before your brother catches us and wants to tag along." Kakashi said, and the two shinobi headed off towards Downtown Konoha. As they walked, the two exchanged stories of the last few months like they'd been friends all their life. Naruto looked up at Kakashi in awe as Kakashi told him about the back to back SS-ranked missions he'd been on.

Akatsuki, the group that apparently was after Naruto because he was a jinchiruuki had set up some training camps in Kusagakure and had been training some of the nin their in an attempt to build a small army of destructive fodder. Foot soldiers that were strong enough to weaken the enemy but never actually make it out of the battle. Kakashi had raided the camps and burned the camps to the ground, killing a majority of the Kusa nin that were hiding there, all without implicating Konoha in the attack.

After walking about a mile, they finally reached their destination for the night, the Crazy Horse. The place held deep memories for Naruto, it had been the place where he would come to escape his father, even if only for a while. It's the place where the father and son started bonding even more, despite their constant bickering.

It was where Naruto admitted that he was crushing on Mitarashi-sensei to his father.

It was outside the seedy bar where Anko kissed him…

Soft, gentle lips pliant against his, her tongue invasive, his lips bruising from her need. Thin yet strong hands gripping his forearms as she took what she needed, his evident arousal grinding against her pelvis. Her smell, unchanging, tainting him with the scent of lilacs, his fantasy complete as she had given him what he wanted for months.

Eyes stinging harshly from the memory, Naruto clenched his eyes shut tightly and stepped into the bar after Kakashi, giving the bartender a small wave. The short, pudgy man had gotten to see Naruto a lot over the last couple weeks, the subsequent repercussion of Anko's dismissal of his love.

Over to the left was his tou-san Minato and his best friend Sasuke. Kakashi and Naruto walked over to them and sat down at the table with them. "Ne, Kaka-sensei, I thought you said not to bring any girls, yet Sasuke's here." Naruto said jokingly, receiving a penetrating glare from the Uchiha.

Minato and Kakashi shared a laugh at the Uchiha's expense. "Shut it dobe…" Sasuke shot back at him, before bringing up the small saucer of sake to his lips. "Shouldn't you be out training to fight me dobe, I'm not going to hold back at the Chuunin Finals you know…'

"I don't need you to hold back, Sasuke-chan. I've been training with the Yondaime while you got stuck with Kakashi-sensei." Naruto bragged, sticking his tongue out. The Yondaime slapped his son upside the head, before ruffling his hair, much to the boy's annoyance.

"Stop being a braggart, Naruto. Those that brag are the first to lose you know." The Yondaime stated, "Even though I am Hokage, I'm still humble and never underestimate the enemy. It's probably why I never lost a single battle." Minato said sagely.

"Neither have I." Naruto shot back, before signaling the waitress to come over to their table so they could order more drinks.

"Plus Naruto, while I imagine you got a lot stronger by training with your father, I on the other hand have a lazy sensei… I trained all month long, pushing myself until I was just a broken heap because I have to win… I will stop at nothing to beat you, so prepare yourself and bring the same, otherwise you shouldn't even fight me at all." Sasuke replied softly, his voice barely above a whisper.

"Nani? Stop being all avengerish Sasuke, it's not becoming of a Yaoikage. We're here to get fucked up and your talking about the Chuunin exams, that's not for another two days." Naruto replied, before accepting the small jug of sake that the waitress brought for him.

Sasuke shook his head in disbelief, he should have figured that Naruto wouldn't take the Chuunin Finals seriously. But Sasuke had too, until Naruto, he had to prove himself to become chuunin. Naruto was guaranteed to make chuunin, simply because his father was the Hokage, but even if Sasuke was guaranteed to make it as well, he needed to fight with everything he had. He had to give it all, to test his capacity against the other challengers because if he didn't, he'd never know how to measure his growth in his attempts to kill his brother, just as Itachi had tested his capacity against their father.

Staring back at his best friend, he saw the boy had a faraway look, as if staring into space, his thousand yard stare unnerving him. "Naruto!" Sasuke nearly shouted, waving his hand frantically in front of the blonde's face. Naruto's eyes lost their glaze and focused in on Sasuke. "What is it?"

"Nothing, you were all spaced out… I thought we were here to get wasted." Sasuke goaded.

"Yosh…let's drink."

Minato bowed his head for a second. He knew damn well Naruto was thinking of Anko again… It had been so painful to watch as a father as Naruto had shut off for a bit, silently pining for the lilac haired Special Jounin. The thirty eight year old Hokage looked over at his student, giving him a warm smile, before opening up his mouth. "Ne, Kakashi, you haven't joined Sasuke in the man on man action have you? I haven't seen you with a female since the day Naruto used his 'Sexy' Jutsu to knock you out." Minato said and laughed as he watched what little was visible of Kakashi's face blush.

"Sensei, that was not youthful." Kakashi shot back….

Minato shivered, "God that'd be a horror if Gai and his little clone showed up here." Minato responded to Kakashi's flippant response. Despite being the strongest shinobi in the village, dubbed Kiiroi Senko by his adversaries, something about the spandex clad duo made his skin crawl.

"Hokage-sama! Let us join together and let us burn with the springtime of youth!" A voice called out from the background. Minato didn't even bother to look, instead he face faulted.

"Son of a bitch… screw you Kakashi-kun."

"My rival is here, tonight will be a great night!" Gai replied loudly, taking seat to Kakashi. "Kakashi-kun, I challenge you to a drinking game… if I cannot drink as many shots of sake as you can consecutively, then in my drunken stupor I will run five hundred laps around the village on my hands… and if I cannot do that I will do five thousand pushups… and if I cannot do…"

"Shut up already…" Minato interjected.

"Hai… that's not too youthful Hokage-sama." Gai responded, bowing his head in shame.

"Fuck youth… it's nothing but pain anyway." Naruto mumbled, thinking of his time with Anko.

"Naruto-kun… you do not understand because you are still young. Let the wounds heal and set yourself a light with the blazing fires that burn in the springtime of youth." Gai replied, causing Naruto to arch an eyebrow.

"Is it just me or did any of you get what the fuck he said?" Naruto asked.

"It's not you… we never do." Sasuke replied laughing.

The drinking continued, as well as Naruto's smile… for once he felt at ease with his father and Kakashi.

He was truly happy…

… but that would soon change.

V

2 days later…

Eight shinobi stood next to each other, awaiting the beginning of the Chuunin Finals. Each had worked hard to get to this point . Eight shinobi who were damn near all qualified to become chuunin. "Sabaku no Gaara, Kankuro, Temari, Namikaze Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke, Rock Lee, Haruno Sakura, Nara Shikamaru, you are all here to represent your respective villages here in this exams, fight with everything you have and make your villages proud in your attempt to become chuunin." The final proctor Umino Iruka spoke. Giving Naruto a sad smile, Iruka thought of how fast his students had grown in six month's time.

"The first fight will be Gaara versus Rock Lee. The rest of you, go back to the stands until your name is called upon." Iruka ordered and the other six genin disappeared via shunshin. Temari and Kankuro headed back to their jounin-sensei Baki while Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura hung out, letting the lazy Shikamaru nap.

Gaara peered at his opponent evilly, letting a cruel smirk bestow upon his pace. True, thanks to the Nibi no Nekomata jinchiruuki he understood that human life was precious and that only by loving others and protecting them did one get stronger, but that didn't mean he didn't love a spot of violence when the opportunity arose. His opponent was clad in an outfit that mimicked that of his sensei Gai. Big, furry eyebrows, black liquid eyes and a shiny bowl cut defined his face sharply. A tight, spandex suit in the color of green left little to the imagination to what hid under it, with orange leg warmers covered up to his knee.

Eccentric the seventeen year old might be, but weak he was not. Due to his chakra coils being so damaged during birth, the genin had to rely solely on taijutsu to fight, but it did not deter his determination, instead it motivated him into become a master of the Goken style taijutsu where he inflicted punishing, bruising blows to his opponent.

"Are you just going to stand there?" Gaara asked, forming a ram hand seal and flaring up a spiral of blue chakra around his body, before reaching behind him and pulling off the cork to his gourd. Sand slid out and surrounded his body.

"No, I am not… prepare yourself for Konoha's handsome devil, Rock Lee." Lee cried out ecstatically, before pushing off the ground and sprinting towards Gaara hastily. Crossing the distance between them in seconds, Lee leaped in the air, twisting his body to land a harsh kick to Gaara's face when the sand surrounding him formed a shield and repelled Lee's attack.

The force of the sand sent Lee stumbling backwards. Gaara couldn't help but laugh at the boy's attempt. "Rock Lee, there's only been one person to get into my sand's defense and harm me, and it will not happen again. Perhaps you should just stop while you are ahead." Gaara offered, his voice full of mirth.

"I cannot Gaara-san, for it is my nindo to prove to the elemental nations that I Rock Lee can be a great ninja using only Taijutsu." Rock Lee replied, standing up to his feet before sprinting at the green eyed redhead. He launched another kick at him, not bothering to stop his movement, before leaping in the air and trying to bring his foot down on the top of Gaara's head. The sand blocked the blow again and Lee jumped back before beginning to run a circle around the red head, leaving a trail of dust kicking up after him.

"Quit your foolishness… it is a fool's dream at the most to honestly believe they can be a great ninja without ninjutsu or genjutsu." Gaara said sneering, until Lee moved sideways, crossing the space between them and bringing his fist up in an uppercut, sending the sand shinobi flying upwards.

"Then I shall be a fool for life, because I will not stop." Lee responded furiously, jumping up after the sand nin. The sand couldn't catch up to them in time and Gaara landed a bruising kick to Gaara's kidneys, sending him up even higher.

Instead of stopping there, Lee began to rabidly punch Gaara in the back, bruising his kidneys with each blow as the two of them began their slow descent back to the dirt. Lee landed on his feet while the sand formed a cushion for Gaara to land on painlessly.

Before Lee could move though, Gaara already sent a mass amount of sand hurtling his way before crashing into Lee sending him flying, crashing cruelly against the stadium wall. Lee picked himself of the ground and evaluated the damage the blow had done…

His kidneys were bruised as well as several of the lower discs in his spine, but otherwise he was fine. Nothing he'd never get over. Leaping backwards onto the top of the stadium wall, he contemplated what angle of attack to do next. He had to be faster than the sand, but outrunning entirely wasn't possible with the weights he was carrying in his leg bracers.

Even then, did he have the strength to put down the red head for good?

Apparently he'd find out his mettle, his capabilities as a shinobi against his worthy adversary…

Reaching down, he pulled out both sets of weights and held them up for the crowd to see. "Do you believe that losing a few pounds is enough to beat me?" Gaara growled out.

"No, losing a few pounds won't do the trick… but the springtime of youth can overcome anything!" Lee shouted back, dropping the weights to the stadium floor where they crashed with a sickening boom as hundreds of pounds crashed into the dirt, cracking the earth underneath its weight, causing dirt to spray all over the place.

"He's good." Naruto muttered to Sasuke who nodded fervently.

Suddenly Lee vanished form sight, causing the crowd to gasp. He reappeared in front of Gaara and landed a hook to his jaw, snapping the boy's neck back, before ramming his knee into his stomach, then moving swiftly to avoid the mass of sand that threatened to crush him. Leaping in the air, he caught Gaara with a spinning heel kick that sent him flying backwards, sending him crashing into the opposite wall where Lee was slammed into.

Gaara stumbled back to his feet, leaking a little bit of killer intent. Green eyes bored into Lee's as his thin lips opened up to let out a guttural roar. "You're going to regret that."

"No I'm not…" Lee replied, before running sideways against the stadium wall. Because Lee couldn't properly mold chakra, he had to rely on speed alone, moving with such velocity that he reappeared in front of Gaara, leg cocked back.

Gaara's eyes widened, then Lee's foot connected, kicking Gaara across the face, sending his hurtling sideways before crashing into a tree, bowling it right over. "One must live life without regrets in order to fully understand the power of youth…" Lee replied.

Gaara stood up, blood dribbling out of his lips. "You've forced my hand." Gaara spoke, emotionless.

Lee did not reply…

The lotus blooms twice a year, it is time… Lee thought.

Lee made a beeline towards Gaara, ducking low to kick him in the chest sending flying up again. Lee followed after him, loosening his bandages as he wrapped his bandages around Gaara, tightening them and keeping Gaara tight against him as they flipped upside down and Lee readied himself.

They began to spin crazily like a top, and Lee nearly cried out from the pain as his muscles began to tighten up on him. "Let me go." Gaara ordered, his eyes closed to not reveal exactly how frightened he was.

"I will prove I can be a great ninja, it is my nindo. You said I couldn't hit you, yet I did… I told you I will not STOP!!!" Lee screamed out, sending them spinning towards the ground.

"PRIMARY LOTUS!"

Right before they crashed into the ground, Lee came to a disastrous realization… He was holding on to a log, which meant that Gaara could use the Kawarimi without using hand seals. He had underestimated the sand nin, and now it was too late…

Lee crashed into the ground, screaming, blood spilling past his lips as his muscles groaned in protests, leaving Lee a broken, bloody heap…

"You underestimated me… it will be your last mistake." Gaara spoke, walking casually towards Lee.

Tears stung Lee's eyes. He had failed to show the Hokage and Konohagakure no Sato that he too could be a great ninja. After so many years of enduring jeers and laughter, too have come this close to fail….

"GET UP LEE!" Gai yelled out to his student.

Even if I fail everyone, even myself, I can never fail Gai-sensei, he is the only one who believed, Lee thought…

Pulling himself out of the dirt, he glared at Gaara. "Prepare yourself for the power of youth." Lee warned holding his arm out, fist clenched.

"You can barely stand, do not make me laugh." Gaara spoke evenly… "This path you take is futile, you shouldn't even be a genin, let alone a chuunin. Stop now and I will spare you an unnecessary death."

"This path I take, I take it because no one else would… This is my path… the road less taken." Lee bellowed, before flaring his chakra, as he opened the first gate.

A/N: Sorry for the wait, but duty calls I guess.


	12. The Path of Righteousness

**THE ROAD LESS TAKEN**

**CHAPTER TWELVE: THE PATH OF RIGHTEOUSNESS **

**DANIEL NIEVES**

AN: Damn, I haven't updated in two months… I really can't offer an excuse. Sorry for the long wait and hopefully I can finish this fic within the next three months. But that might not happen, I just found out I might be going to South America for four months in April so we'll see.

I

Kotetsu and Izumo were hanging out at the front gate, having just relieved the previous watch standers, the chuunin were exceptionally bored. Everyone important had come in the village while they were off so they hadn't gotten to meet any Daimyo's or hot princesses that needed escorted. So imagine their surprise when an hour into their shift, two lone figures walked towards them, one having supposedly been dead.

One was a busty blonde, her heaving chest the epitome of every man's wet dreams, with a chocolate brown eyes and fearsome strength. It was Tsunade of the Sannin. The other was a jounin who was rumored to have been transferred to the Kiri ANBU department. Lilac colored hair, hazel eyes and a considerable bust herself, Mitarashi Anko walked up to the chuunins.

Despite her change in attire, she still brought a nosebleed to the chuunins on guard duty. She had on tight ANBU style pants with the shin guards she always wore. Instead of a fish net top, she had on a black spandex shirt with the standard Konoha green Jounin flak vest. "Mitarashi Anko, reporting for duty." She spoke levelly, not really paying attention to the Chuunin, but to the stadium in the distance where the finals were being held.

'Naruto.'

"Senju Tsunade, Chief of Medicine reporting for duty." Tsunade spoke and the chuunins shuddered as she glared at them for checking her out.

"Kotetsu, lead them to the stadium and brief the Hokage immediately." Izumo ordered. Kotetsu looked at his best friend and nodded, before the three shinobi disappeared via shunshin and headed in the direction of the stadium.

Minato was thoroughly enjoying the fight between Rock Lee and Gaara. Despite Lee's obvious disadvantages, the boy was a superior ninja and he'd be damned if he left that kid a Genin. Sure, he hadn't watched enough of the fight to see if the seventeen year old had the mind of a chuunin but his fighting prowess was just enough to clench it for him. Minato felt a disturbance in the air, his eyes swiveling over to the Kazekage as three bodies appeared in front of him, his hand on his tri-tipped kunai.

Electric blue eyes swerved up to look at the intruders. It was Kotetsu, one of the chuunin guards with Mitarashi Anko and Senju Tsunade. 'Tsunade's alive?' he thought to himself as he was already going through the hand seals for the Kuchiyose no jutsu. There was a small poof of smoke and Gamatatsu appeared. "How can I help you oyabun?" the fat, yellow toad asked in his high pitched voice.

"Go to Jiraiya and tell him Tsunade's alive. Tell him to get here now." Minato demanded. "I'll give you a treat later." He promised the frog, before it disappeared in another compilation of smoke.

"Explain yourselves…follow me." Minato ordered, standing up to his feet and giving the Kazekage an apologetic look. "Forgive me for the abruptness, but there is an urgent matter that has to be taken care of." Minato spoke gravely.

"Please Yondaime-dono, can it not wait until after the Finals. My son is here fighting his guts out to prove to all of us his existence, allow him that much." The Kazekage begged.

"It cannot." Minato spoke regrettably, before grabbing the two elite jounin and disappearing in a flash of yellow.

They reappeared in the Hokage's office. "What the fuck is going on?" Minato spoke after setting a silencer seal on the room. "Tsunade, you're supposed to be dead, and Anko, did you complete your mission without compromising us."

Anko chose to speak first. "The target Kazama Arashi has been assassinated. Konoha has not been compromised as it appears that I was killed in the blast as well. Tsunade found me and healed me as I almost did die and brought me here to Konoha." Anko spoke, bowing her head down before the Hokage.

"Good job. Did you confirm the identity of the Mizukage and have any possible information?" Minato asked calmly.

"The Mizukage is an Uchiha, as to whether he is Madara I do not know, though it appears to be so. The Mizukage is the leader of the infamous Akatsuki and they are planning to come to Konoha and take Naruto to steal the Kyuubi away from him. Now with the death of Arashi, he might show up a hell of a lot sooner."

Minato pondered it for a moment. "I thought you said Konoha was not implicated in the attack." He stated, before boring his gaze into her hazel eyes.

"That is true, Konoha is not implicated through evidence. The Mizukage cannot legally go to war with us without major backfire from the Daimyo of Mizu no Kuni. But, Uchiha Madara is not stupid, and he Uchiha Madara can go to war with us here in Konoha." Anko replied.

Minato nodded his understanding. "Do you think he'd be that bold?" Minato asked.

"We killed his son, wouldn't you? Not to mention the backing he has from Akatsuki, Pain the guy who murdered Hittori Hanzou, Konan, Uchiha Itachi, Hoshigaki Kisame as well as a few others…"

Minato bowed his head, knowing full well that if someone were to kill Naruto or Kakashi, Hokage be damned someone would die. "Roger that. Anko-chan, thank you for completing the mission, feel free to return to the Chuunin Finals and see Naruto. It's pretty evident on your face that it's where you want to be." Minato spoke, giving her a small wave of dismissal.

Anko smiled at the Hokage. "Thank you Minato-sama." And with that she disappeared using Shunshin again.

"And you Tsunade-san, where the hell have you been?"

II

Rock Lee's body bursted with chakra as his muscles expanded and stretched, nearly causing him to cry out in pain. Eyes alit with the power of youth, he sprinted towards the stoic red head disappearing from the jinchiruuki's line of sight and punching him in the stomach hard enough to nearly make him vomit. Blood and saliva flew from his mouth, his eyes widening in pain as the spandex clad genin was so fast, his sand hadn't even thought of rising up in defense.

Rock Lee charged up his chakra in his fists and punched the red head in the ribs, hearing them snap under the ruthless punch. Gaara's sand rose up to protect him, saving him from a bone crunching kick to his face. Gaara feebly tried to control the sand and get it to wrap around the teen, but he quickly moved out of the way and gave Gaara an uppercut, sending him flying in the air.

Lee disappeared behind him and set up the Kage Buyo, unleashing his bandages as they wrapped themselves tightly around Gaara, squeezing his ribs and torso with ungodly pressure, to the point where Gaara was about to pass out from pain.

Only once had he been so viciously beaten… and that had been in the fight against Yugito, the other jinchiruuki. No one besides that insufferable two tailed bitch had even hurt him, until now. Gaara squeezed his eyes shut, hoping it'd shut out the pain, but it did not.

They flipped upside down as Lee screamed out, "Omote Renge!" The spun again, and Gaara had no choice as they were seconds from crashing hard into the earth. Dissolving his gourd into sand, he wrapped it around the two of them.

Lee spun faster to shrug away the sand, but it would not budge, it simply held them up there in midair. "What are you doing, accept defeat to the power of youth!" Lee screamed.

"Never, I will never lose to you! I'd rather feed our blood to mother than lose to you!" Gaara shot back, "Sabaku Kyuu!" he screamed as the sand crushed them both inside the tomb of doom.

Blood sprayed in the air from both combatants as they fell to the ground and landed in a bloody heap. Lee tried to stand up, his bones refusing, giving out on him as the sand had crushed his lower spine and legs. "I will not give up, that it is my nindo." Lee yelled as he crawled towards the motionless Gaara.

Gripping a kunai tightly in his hand, he held it poised over the jinchiruuki's throat. "Yield." He said simply, shutting out the pain that threatened to overcome him.

Gaara's body dissolved into sand. "Suna bunshin?" Lee asked stupefied. "How?"

Gaara reappeared in front of him, lips bruised and bloody, nose broken with twin steams of blood pouring down his face. "It does not matter, prepare yourself to die!" Gaara spoke, bloodlust heavy in his voice. He outstretched his hand and sand wrapped itself around Lee, forcibly lifting him up in the air.

Naruto looked onwards from the stands. "Stop it, the match is over, he can't defend himself you bastard." Naruto shouted from the bleachers.

Gaara paid him no mind. Iruka appeared in front of him, "The match is over Gaara-san, you win. Let him go." The jounin warned him. Gaara smirked at him, and maneuvered the sand so it slowly started to come off Lee, as the sand slid down his back.

Naruto released the breath he'd been holding. Suddenly there was a loud crunch as Gaara broke Lee's spine, still smirking. Tears found their way to Naruto's eyes as his good friend Lee passed out from the pain, and fell to the earth harshly.

Disappearing with speed he didn't know he had, he reappeared over Lee's crouched body as well as Gai, who he too had tears streaming down his face. Naruto looked at Lee's broken body before checking to see if he had a pulse…

He did… it was weak, but he was still alive. "Medics!!!" Naruto shouted and three white clad medics appeared, stretching in tow as they laid Lee out on it. Gaara was still watching and smirking. After the Medics and Gai took Lee away, Naruto unleashed killer intent to Gaara, his eyes red with malevolence.

Iruka saw this and grabbed Naruto's arm. "Don't or you'll be disqualified." Iruka spoke with authority.

"Hai." Naruto nodded numbly, before looking at Gaara, canines bared. "I don't care if you're the Kazekage's son and next Kazekage. I don't care that I'm supposed to marry your sister, and frankly I don't give a flying fuck about our village's alliance. After I beat this next opponent and me and you face off, I will show you the same mercy you showed my friend Lee…

"Killing you would be a mercy that I will not give you. I will maim you and cripple you, until you are less than nothing, until even the Ichibi that you hold inside of you can no longer heal you. I vow that on everything I love, I will make you regret what you did, if it's the last thing I do." Naruto spoke calmly, the power and aura of jounin coming off him in waves.

"Feel free to try, Chibi Yondaime." Gaara shot back, before disappearing in a cloud of sand.

"You alright?" Iruka asked him.

Tears staining his face, Naruto turned to look at him. "Could that have been me, so cold and ruthless to do that to somebody so defenseless?" Naruto questioned, though the question wasn't really directed at Iruka but himself. "Could that have been me?"

"The next match is Namikaze Naruto versus Sabaku no Temari." Iruka shouted and saw the stricken look on Naruto's face. Clearly he had not expected that.

Temari appeared in the ground level of the stadium, using her fan as transport. She gave Naruto an apologetic look, bummed that fate would toss them in this situation.

"Give up Tema-chan. I'm not in a mood to be fucked with and I wish to do you no harm." Naruto spoke.

Temari looked into his steely gaze and nearly urinated herself. The look on Naruto's face was haunting, something that she could of expected from Gaara but never from Naruto. His eyebrows were furrowed in anger, his blue eyes cold and detached. His lips curled back in a snarl, this was a side of him she never wanted to witness.

He stood there snarling, his tight black thermal shirt fitting his body perfectly, flaunting the torso that lay beneath it. Black, baggy ninja pants and black shinobi sandals finished the look. He looked dangerous, every bit of a shinobi he was.

Wrapped around his shoulders was the strap to the sheath of his kodaichi, one hand behind his back holding the handle of the weapon, ready to draw it at any second.

Temari, unwilling to look bad in front of her peers back flipped a few feet away from him and unleashed her fan, spreading it to the three moon visage. "It's over." She boasted. She cocked back and poured as much wind chakra she could before launching it at Naruto, a vortex of cutting wind flying towards him.

Just as it was about to hit him, he disappeared in a flash. "It is." He replied, kodaichi at her neck.

"Maybe…" She taunted, looking for an escape and from beneath the ground came six kage bunshins, kodaichis drawn and aimed at her vital points.

"Give up." Naruto repeated, his kodaichi digging into her jugular. One little slice and she'd be dead.

Realizing there was no escape, she bowed her head. "Proctor, I give up." She turned around to face Naruto, but he was already walking away, his head downcast.

Why did Gaara do that to Lee?

Would Naruto really cripple Gaara and possibly fuck the whole alliance up?

Seeing that the match was over, Iruka called out the next match. "Sakura and Kankuro, you're next!"

III

Naruto stood outside the emergency room where Lee was being taken care of. Tears still streaming down his face, he remembered the times he and Lee shared since they were kids, always rivaling and trying to outdo each other. Lee didn't deserve this.

After a few seconds, Gai stepped out of the room looking morbid. "Gai-sensei, what happened, what's going on with Lee?" Naruto begged desperately.

Gai looked up, before he looked away, his voice choked up with unwilling sobs. "Lee's paralyzed, he'll live, but he'll never walk again, the amounts of fractures in his spine are so numerous that he's lucky to even have mobility in his arms and hands. His days as a ninja are over." Gai spoke, before walking away, giving the blonde teen a small wave. "Fuck him up Naruto, don't let that Suna bastard get away with it." Gai spoke, shaking Naruto out of his reverie.

Gai never spoke like that.

Naruto watched him leave before leaning against the wall precariously. Why?

"I'm sorry about Lee…" a sympathetic voice spoke, one that was eerily familiar. Blue eyes met hazel. "How are you doing Naruto-kun?" Anko spoke softly, before standing close to him, peering at him through her half lidded almond shaped eyes.

"What are you doing here? Didn't you transfer to Kiri or some shit like that?" Naruto demanded.

"Yeah, that was the cover story." Anko replied sympathetically. "I didn't want to leave you, but I had to." She continued, walking up to him and placing her hand on his shoulder.

He looked at her, blue orbs ablaze, brushing her hand off. "You lied to me, you told me I was nothing but a game, and that you never loved me… Maybe you did have some mission in Kiri, but you didn't have to do me like that." Naruto snarled, the look on his face was enough to scare Anko.

"I had to…" Anko replied sadly.

Naruto gave her a disbelieving look as he summoned a cigarette and lighter through a nifty seal he created with his father. Lighting up the cigarette, he took a deep drag in an attempt to calm himself down, but it was hard, the woman he loved dearly stood in front of him making excuses for her actions. "Whatever…" Naruto bit back what he was about to say next.

"That too was part of my mission." Anko revealed.

Blue orbs met hazel and for a few seconds it was like the world stopped, and nothing else mattered. "Why?"

"It's classified as a SS-ranked mission, but you're going to find out anyway in the next hour or so. Sunagakure allied itself with Otogakure and are planning to attack Konoha during the Chuunin Finals. Temari was sent here by the Kazekage to woo you into marriage, making it that much easier to kill you during the exams. The only thing standing in the way was me, and because Sunagakure needed to believe that you were feeling something for her, so I needed to destroy you in the worst way possible so you would rebound to her in your anger." She shot back.

"No way, Temari wouldn't…" Naruto looked at Anko, horror stricken, his eyes alit with tears. "She couldn't, she's not like that…"

"Sorry, Naru-chan. So I need you to understand something, I did what I had to because it benefitted Konoha on the whole, but never have I stopped loving you." Anko confessed, grabbing him by the back of his neck and pulling him forward towards her. "I still love you and I'm sorry for hurting you the way I did."

Naruto looked into her eyes, tears still streaming. "I never got over you…" he admitted softly. "I couldn't even sleep with her, I tried, but all I could think about was you."

Before he could say anything else, her soft lips were pressed against his and he didn't have time to fight it, had he actually wanted to, which he didn't. Without thinking of the impeding attack, he grabbed at her, touching as much skin as possible.

His tongue was insistent, pushing between her teeth as he pulled her flush to him, his hands on the small of her back. "I still love you." He murmured into her mouth.

She whimpered under his ministration, her arms wrapped around him, unwilling to let him go. They both pulled apart and looked each other in the eye, gasping slightly.

"I love you." They both blurted out simultaneously.

"I'm sorry Naruto for everything that I had to do." Anko apologized once more, pulling him into another kiss. All her feelings, her regret, her lust, her love was poured into it as she sent them stumbling into one of the medic rooms, pushing him down onto the bed.

"Anko…" Naruto spoke, stopping her in her tracks.

"Yes?"

"Tell me that this is real, and that you're not going anywhere. Is this really happening?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, Naruto-kun, it's real." Before she could say anything else, he flipped there positions so he was on top, claiming her lips once more for another kiss. He was unbelievably hard, he was needing her more than she could ever know. His fingers at the waistband of her pants, slowly pulling them down to reveal the flesh underneath. She had pulled off her spandex shirt and the fishnet top, leaving her very naked under Naruto who was still fully clothed.

"Still dressed? We got to fix that." Anko said, pulling down his baggy pants as he pulled off his thermal shirt and fishnet top, tossing his clothes askew.

They stared into each other's eyes again, and they were home one thrust later. Naruto's lips were kissing any bare flesh they could find, his thrusts on tempo with hers, as she grinded her hips and he almost lost control immediately.

"I love you Anko." Naruto whispered.

IV

Sasuke's eyes twitched in annoyance. Where the hell was that bastard Naruto at? He had disappeared after Lee's fight and hadn't returned. He had missed on both Sakura's fight as well as his. Sakura had been poisoned, but she had showed exactly why she was Tsunade's apprentice as she healed herself and landed vicious punches on the long distanced puppet user.

After breaking his puppets and shattering them into nothing more than woodchips, he had reluctantly given up.

Sasuke on the other hand had fought for nearly an hour against Shikamaru. The sixteen year old was definitely a superb genius as he eluded Sasuke's Goukakyuu and anything else he threw at him. The only reason Sasuke even won was because Shikamaru had run out of chakra by the time that Sasuke charged up his Chidori Nagashi, knocking the genin out as electricity fired up his system.

Vanishing via shunshin, he headed down to the hospital corps to see if Naruto was still with Lee. As he walked through the halls, he could sense Naruto here, within ten yards. The two had been able to do that for a while, sense each other through chakra.

Stepping into one of the rooms, he saw Naruto and Anko, half naked as they put their clothes back on. Arching his eyebrow at the lovers, Sasuke opened his mouth. "So, back together?"

Naruto stared at him in shock. "Ugh…" Sasuke looked at Anko, giving her a disbelieving glare. Shaking his head at the two, Sasuke looked over at Naruto.

"You're match with Gaara is about to start. You should hurry." Sasuke said pointedly, before leaving the room.

Sasuke stormed off heading back to the stadium. Naruto and Anko back together, he didn't know what to think about it. Not to mention, where did the blonde daughter of the Kazekage fit into this?

V

Brushing all thoughts of the violet haired jounin out of his mind, Naruto headed towards the arena, focused on doing on thing… crippling Gaara. He'd never forget the eerie smile on the Suna genin's face as he crippled Lee. He would completely and utterly embarrass him in front of everyone, Shukaku be damned.

As he stepped outside, he saw Gaara already waiting for him, a smug smile on his face. "Are you ready, chibi Yondaime?" Gaara asked menacingly, as the sand whipped around him, forming a half open cocoon. Naruto saw that his chances of penetrating it were bleak, but then again, he really hadn't been slacking in the month of training.

His body had been tested to limits he'd never known before, and despite the pain, the results were well worth it. "This is the only chance you have to give up Gaara, before I humiliate you in front of everyone." Naruto spoke, his voice heavy with sadness at Lee's predicament. "If you choose to fight, know that you will be completely outclassed. You don't stand a chance."

"You are funny Naruto. I will not give up, I am the vessel for the Shukaku no Ichibi. One tail should be enough for you." Gaara retaliated.

"I have nine bitch." Naruto fired back. Iruka looked at the two, wary of starting the match.

"Begin." Iruka called out, before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto launched forward, his body a blur and attempted to connect a punch with Gaara's face but the sand blacked it, before reaching towards him to wrap around him. Naruto saw it and backed up, running through a set of hand seals as he did. "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" Naruto sucked in air, combining it with chakra as he did and felt the fire chakra build up in his chest. He blew it out and a large fireball was launched at Gaara, encompassing his entire sand barrier.

The fireball dissipated and Gaara was unscathed. "You are too slow, Naruto." Gaara said, laughing cruelly.

Naruto held his arm out, before clasping it like Sasuke did for his Chidori with his other hand. His chakra spiked and suddenly a burst of flames rise from his hand up to his elbow, completely engulfed. "Who says that's the fastest I can go?" Naruto asked, smiling at the redhead.

Before Gaara could even muster up the energy to contemplate what that meant, Naruto was gone, faster than before. Suddenly he appeared in front of Gaara, running around him in circles, not attacking, and the fire grew stronger, now heating Gaara up.

"Damn you Nami…" Gaara was shut up as Naruto's flame covered fist slammed into his face, his sand too slow to even move to protect him. The flames were hot, hotter than any pain Gaara had ever known, and he felt the skin peel as flames burned away at them. His teeth, his tongue was on fire.

"Houkaken!"

Gaara pulled back, slamming his wave off sand into Naruto to send him away from him. Gaara's left side of his face was gone, marred away by flames and puckered with holes, blood and pus surfacing. "You're going to die!!!" Gaara screamed, even as the Ichibi's chakra began to regroup the sinewy skin of his face.

"You sure you don't want to give up?" Naruto questioned, before disappearing again in a blur.

Gaara's eyes swiveled around trying to catch Naruto, but it was useless, it was as if he were taking on the Yondaime one on one. Naruto appeared above him and punched him on the top of his forehead, his right leg rising before he even landed to land an excruciating kick to Gaara's neck, sending him flying sideways.

Gaara's face cracked against the side of the Chuunin stadium. Perhaps he had underestimated the blonde? Before he could even think of anything else, his mouth involuntarily opened up and let out a high pitched scream, blood gushing from his mouth. Gaara looked down to find a kunai shoved into his stomach to the hilt.

"You should have given up when I gave you the chance." Naruto whispered in Gaara's ear, before kicking him in the stomach as he pulled the kunai out, sending Gaara smacking into the wall again.

Naruto backed up and watched the jinchiruuki warily. It seemed as if no matter what he did, the Ichibi would start healing, Gaara's muscles started to regroup in his face and an eerily gold glow emerged from the wound that Naruto left.

He had a few jutsus in his arsenals. He had already mastered the fire element in his time prior to the chuunin exams. He knew the Kuchiyose no Jutsu as well as the Rasengan and a few variations of it. Naruto took off after Gaara again, weaving around the sand that was aimed for his face, before leaping up in the air, spinning around and kicking Gaara in the face. Still in midair, he spun again, kicking Gaara with his other foot.

Landing casually on the soft grass, he immediately launched a set of shuriken at Gaara's face, but Gaara reacted timely with his sand, sending the shuriken spinning away from his wildly. This did not deter Naruto, who ducked under a wave of sand, before planting his foot under Gaara's chin, sending Gaara flying up in the air.

Naruto followed up with a Kage Buyo that Lee had taught him and the two fighters flew in the air, with Naruto beneath him. "This is for Lee, I call it the Renge no Namikaze Rasengan." Naruto growled out, before punching Gaara in the ribs, breaking two in the process. Naruto landed another punch to his kidneys, knocking him up in the air, even higher still.

Gaara let out an angry shriek, the sand unable to catch up, leaving him defenseless as Naruto landed a crippling blow to his spine, then a vicious punch to Gaara's neck, before spinning around to face him in midair.

Gaara's teal eyes peered into Naruto's cold cerulean orbs and saw that the eyes were void of life. Naruto hated Gaara so much that there was nothing left in his pristine gaze. The two hung there, face to face in midair, before Naruto held his hand out and spiked his chakra, as a swirling vortex of blue began to form in his hand.

The chakra continued to swirl and the vortex shaped a sphere, nearly unstable as chakra continued spinning recklessly in it. "FUCK YOU NAMIKAZE!" Gaara yelled, but it was inconsequential.

Naruto smirked, his eyes turning into blue orbs with a black slit, before slamming the Rasengan into Gaara's stomach, smiling cruelly as Gaara let out a terrified, pain filled scream. Naruto clenched Gaara by the front of his shirt to keep him in place as the two started their descent back to the earth.

The deadly sphere continued spinning, digging into Gaara's torso and they crashed hard into the dirt, leaving both fighters motionless. "Holy shit." Iruka spoke, from the sidelines.

There was a momentary silence, no one dared to speak, some even held there breaths. Surprisingly enough, Gaara was the first to move, stirring slightly as he rolled away from Naruto, fear etched on his face. "Why do you fight so hard for him?" Gaara asked, "If you fight for yourself and only yourself, you could be so much stronger." Gaara said shivering as his stood back on his feet, his torso marred beyond recognition.

Blood pooled around his feet, his guts nearly falling out of his stomach, damaged far beyond what the Ichibi could heal in the meantime. Naruto rolled over, standing up to his feet as well. "Because he was a friend, a close one at that. All my life, people have been wary of me because I am the vessel for the Kyuubi no Kitsune and because I'm the Yondaime, but Rock Lee did not care and befriended me anyway. He was there for me as well as a few others when my father ignored me, and he did not care for either fact and treated me like he wanted to be treated. I fight for him because despite the fact that he cannot use genjutsu or ninjutsu, he continued fighting, striving to become a worthy ninja in Konoha's eyes, a dream that is truly worth fighting for.

"He was an honorable shinobi, striving so hard and you showed him no mercy, even though he was already defeated and could no longer fight, you aimed to crush his dreams. So I will not rest until I crush yours right before your eyes." Naruto finished, allowing the Kyuubi's chakra to heal his sore body up a bit.

"You leaf nin are so pathetic, which is why you will all die here today." Gaara spoke and suddenly sand burst from the ground, swirling around his misshapen figure as he transformed right before Naruto's eyes, becoming a sand tanuki of sorts, the killer intent leaking from him made Naruto want to pause in fear.

There was the sound of a trumpet, and suddenly two large snakes appeared in the background, bursting through the walls.

"Konoha will fall." Gaara said, his lips forming a demonic smile.

VI

Sasuke looked in the distance and saw a two headed snake burst through Konoha's gates, and suddenly there was a flood of Oto jounin and chuunin. "We're under attack!" Sasuke called out loudly for everyone to hear and prepare, before his eyes turned blood red with three tomoes swimming in each.

Sasuke leaped over the railing and onto the chuunin floor stadium, avoiding the kunai that was aimed his way before stabbing an Oto nin in the forehead before he could reach Naruto, who was backing away from Gaara.

"Naruto, what the fuck are you doing?" Sasuke yelled, before leaping at another group of Oto chuunin, hacking and slashing with his katana. In the distance he could see the Konoha twelve fighting their own battles as well as their jounin senseis.

Before Sasuke could retaliate and do something else, a loud, booming voice called out Shinra Tensei and suddenly everyone was blown backwards.

Sasuke blacked out momentarily. When he awoke, Konoha was leveled and half of it was in ruins. "Foolish little brother, you are still so very weak."

Sasuke froze, immediately recognizing the voice and seeing that it belonged to his older brother Itachi, the man he swore to kill for so long.

Sasuke turned around to face the bearer of the voice and saw Itachi's blood red Mangekyou eyes. He looked the same as when he left, except he was clad in a black cloak with red clouds on them. "Uchiha Itachi!" Sasuke snarled, sliding into a defensive stance.

"I hope you have been well, otouto." Itachi said forming the smallest of smiles.

Everything that he had been working so hard for was made for this moment, this opportunity to kill the one man who had taken his father's life. "Prepare to die Itachi."

"You should be the one prepare foolish otouto, we came and finished the job we started years ago, that Shinra Tensei you heard was unleashed in the middle of the Uchiha district, the Uchiha are no more." Itachi spoke.

Sasuke's eyes filled with tears and his clenched fist built up with electricity. "Uchiha Itachi!!!"

VII

Jiraiya was watching Naruto fight from the stands when he saw a pair of snakes slam into the village gates and penetrate and suddenly there was a flood of Oto and Suna shinobi. He knew of their impeding invasion and knew that Konoha was more than ready to face them, having already known of their plans.

Leaping from his seat into the fray, he saw two figures in the distance. One was a beautiful dark haired woman, but she disappeared in a swirl of paper, and Jiraiya immediately recognized her as Konan. "You're supposed to be dead." Jiraiya mused. He looked at the other man and immediately recognized him as Akatsuki, but before he could move, the man unleashed a 'Shinra Tensei' and suddenly half the village had exploded in an explosion of dirt and cement.

If that was Konan, then he would have to be…

"Yahiko!?"

VIII

Minato immediately saw through Orochimaru's disguise and kicked the older shinobi out of his way, seeing the two headed snake in the distance. Before he could do much about it, an explosion rocked Konoha and suddenly the Uchiha district vanished, along with half the village. Minato's eyes filled with tears and he grabbed a tri tipped kunai, seeing the masses of intruders that came into his villages.

"Kage Kunai no Jutsu." He calmly spoke, multiplying his kunai a hundred fold before launching them at the intruders, disappearing in a yellow flash. He reappeared, severing the heads and throats of as many foreign shinobi as he could in seconds, before disappearing into the next seal and reappearing in the next.

Out of his peripherals, he saw the Sandaime Sarutobi engaged in battle with Orochimaru on top of the skybox.

Before he could disappear again, a punch slammed into his stomach, bending him over from the pain. As he looked up, there were four bodies caped in black cloaks with red clouds and identical eyes. "Prepare for my Pain Yondaime-sama." One of the bodies spoke. "This path of pain, is the true and only path of righteousness."

The invasion had begun.

End of Chapter Twelve

List of Jutsus:

Omote Renge/ Primary Lotus: A-ranked Kinjutsu that Rock Lee and Maito Gai primarily use. The jutsu is solely based off taijutsu as the user wraps himself tightly to his opponent, before spinning as fast as possible and crashing hard back to the earth. The main reason it's a kinjutsu is because of the wear and tear it does to the user, effectively a double edged sword.

Sabaku Kyuu/ Sand Coffin: Gaara envelops his opponent and sand, and then using chakra crushes them to pieces with the pressurized sand itself, killing the opponent.

Chidori Nagashi/ Chidori Current: Rather than getting up close and personal with a Chidori, Sasuke instead channels the lightning chakra through his katana, or even his body himself. While not as damaging as the Chidori, it's still a solid B-ranked jutsu.

Kage Buyo/ Shadow of the Dancing Leaf: Another taijutsu move that after knocking an opponent in the air, the user shadows the opponent by floating underneath them, putting them in a vunerable aerial position and setting them up for something worse.

Katon: Goukakyuu/ Fire Style: Grand Fireball- enough said, Sasuke uses it a lot. A really big fireball.

Houkaken/Flame fist: One of Naruto's unique jutsus, created to emulate Sasuke's chidori's thrusting action. Rather than electricity, Naruto uses fire to land searing blows to opponents. B-ranked.

Renge no Namikaze Rasengan/ Namikaze Spiral Sphere Lotus: S-ranked jutsu. Naruto created after training with Lee in their younger years. After using Kage Buyo, Naruto unleashes powerful punches and kicks to send the opponent higher in the air, before flipping in front of them and slamming a lethal Rasengan, while holding on, not allowing the opponent to spiral away.

Shinra Tensei: Pain's technique, god Pain uses gravity and chakra to blow shit away from him, powerful stuff. (lame)

Hiraishin/Flying Thunder God: Minato's jutsu in which using kunai marked with specific seals, he can travel nearly instantaneously through each seal, effectively summoning himself to another spot without using chakra like Shunshin. This jutsu is why he got the name Kiiroi Senko, Yellow Flash, because he used it effectively to wipe out platoons of Iwa nin in mere seconds. Because of the complexity of the jutsu, not only does no one else know it, but it hasn't been duplicated.

A/N: Like I said before, I'm really sorry for the wait. But hopefully you enjoyed reading this chapter, more than I enjoyed writing it. Three more chapters to go before I finish this fic and move onto the next one, and hopefully it won't be long before I finish this, hopefully before the summer starts.

Oh yea, definitely not going to South America so expect the next chapter of Requiem of a Demon in two weeks. Should take no more than that, and I hope you're enjoying this as much as I am. Lastly, what did you think of Anko's return to Konoha and back with Naruto? I still don't know what I'm going to do about the Anko/Naru/Temari situation, but all will be revealed by the fifteenth chapter.

Have a good one.

Ja Ne!

Daniel Nieves


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